Gratitude

A newborn's tiny hand stretches out from inside a swaddle, as her parents hold hands in the background. — Baby Kari at 4 days old.

About 2 weeks ago, I gave birth to my first baby. After a fairly uneventful pregnancy (where I continued being the sole content designer on SF COVID work almost the whole time), the delivery was more complicated. But baby is healthy and I am well on the road to recovery!

I haven’t quite internalized that I am a mom quite yet. Instead, the overwhelming feeling I have is gratitude. Gratitude for a healthy baby who came out crying lustily and immediately opening her eyes to look at me.

Gratitude for the epidural that made me blissfully unaware of the bleeding and resulting medical urgency right after the birth. (My husband and aunt were scared to death though!) Gratitude for said husband, relatives, and a postpartum doula who insist on putting my recovery first.

I’m not used to putting myself first. In fact, I’m completely capable of working myself into the ground and through to the other side, as the COVID work shows! I have a high tolerance for work. But this was different—it would take time and some care. I’m not used to that.

I also feel gratitude for the COVID response work that we did over the past year. The hospital that I gave birth at was not overrun by COVID-19 patients. I even got to stay an extra day for my recovery! (A lot of people gave birth the week I did though! 😆)

Lastly, gratitude for the scientific miracle that are the COVID-19 vaccines. When I found out I was pregnant, it was during the terrible holiday surge. But I hoped things would be better in 2021. We knew by then that we had 2 vaccines that worked beyond our wildest dreams. 🤞🏻

I found out I was pregnant the first week I worked on vaccine content. I went into labor the day the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine. It seemed serendipitous—I named my daughter Kariko, after Dr. Katalin Kariko who created the vaccine that protects me and baby.

The future still seems uncertain for all of us, even beyond COVID-19. But we must continue to be inspired and motivated by smart, optimistic, tenacious people like Dr. Kariko. We can only make progress together. We owe it to the next generation to try.