Local couple welcomes newborn amid coronavirus crisis
BATON ROUGE - Josh and Alice Sibley welcomed their second child into the world Thursday, a baby named Benjamin.
All three were greeted with an experience that is definitely a sign of the times.
"Yes, we have to wear masks. Yes, we have to keep separated, and we can't wander around the building," Alice said. "While I was laboring, I did have the mask on the whole time."
With the coronavirus pandemic gripping Louisiana, extra precautions are necessary even after the birth of the Sibleys' son.
"Our daughter can't even come. No family members can be here," Josh said. "If I was to leave the physical hospital, I couldn't come back until they reopen tomorrow at 9 a.m."
The couple considered a home birth, but the hospital seemed like the safest choice.
"For us the risk of labor and delivery complications and the potential for that is definitely higher than contracting the virus at the hospital," Alice explained.
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And being quarantined at the hospital ultimately makes little difference to the couple, who would have had to wait out the virus regardless.
"We still don't know what it's going to be like a couple weeks from now. So we know that no matter what happened in the world we would be basically self-quarantined with a newborn anyway. We're not going anywhere and doing anything," Alice said.
The Sibleys said this is hardly the first time they had a child under stressful circumstances, with their first being born just days before the flood of 2016.