Hallie Jackson, who welcomed her daughter Monroe, in March, is opening up about what it’s like to parent a 9-month-old while in quarantine.
In an Instagram post on Monday, the NBC News chief White House correspondent revealed she will be isolating for at least another seven days after learning that a close contact tested positive for COVID-19.
“It’s weird to wear a mask to hug your infant. But this has been life for almost a week now: nursing while masked, diaper changes while masked, bathtime while masked,” Jackson, 36, wrote.
Jackson noted that she and her partner, Frank Thorp, and their little girl have all been eating their meals and sleeping in separate rooms.
“And while my own quarantine has felt stressful, none of it comes close to comparing to the anxiety, pain, and grief of so many people who have struggled or seen their loved one struggle with COVID,” Jackson shared. “It’s why I got a little emotional watching those trucks roll out yesterday, carrying the vaccines that inoculate not just against the virus but against despair. Hope and help are on the way.”
The black-and-white Instagram photo, which was taken by Thorp, shows Jackson giving Monroe a sweet masked hug.
A study published earlier this year in JAMA Pediatrics found that babies can breastfeed and stay with COVID-19 positive moms without an increased risk of contracting the virus.
“We encourage the moms to wear masks, wash their hands and clean their breasts before breastfeeding,” Dr. Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, an OB-GYN and maternal fetal medicine specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, previously told TODAY Parents.
Though it’s not possible that a mom can transmit the virus to her child, it’s unlikely, Gyamfi-Bannerman said.
“For the majority of women, they should at least be reassured that they don’t need to be separated from their babies,” she explained. “The likelihood of transmission in that setting with proper precautions — masks, hand and breast hygiene — is pretty low.”