Houston mom finally meets newborn son after battling COVID for over a month
“I never got to hold him,” Pettaway told ABC 13. “It was sad because I never got to bond with my son.”
On Sept. 21, Pettaway had the chance to hold her son. “I started crying happy tears because I missed him,” said Pettaway. “It was a good day that day.”
Pettaway was not vaccinated, and she has since admitted she should have listened to her doctors and been immunized. “I didn’t want to get vaccinated while pregnant,” said Pettaway. “I didn’t know how that was going to affect him.”
Now, the mom is urging everyone to get the vaccine. Since she was released from the hospital, Pettaway has been going to rehab to relearn how to walk and use her arms.
“My kids are my motivation to get better,” she said. Pettaway’s sister set up a GoFundMe page for donations.
In a statement last month, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote, “CDC encourages all pregnant people or people who are thinking about becoming pregnant and those breastfeeding to get vaccinated to protect themselves from COVID-19. The vaccines are safe and effective,” she maintained, “and it has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible Delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people.”