When Sarah Sawers heard about St. Paul’s Hospital’s new virtual prenatal workshops, established due to COVID-19 last year, she was excited. They would be valuable preparation for the upcoming birth of her first child.
She signed up for her first session, with husband Gordon, on June 16. She was 36 weeks along.
That day, Sawers, a cardiac nurse at St. Paul’s, woke up with lower-back tightness. At one point, the pain became severe. Yet with no other signs of labour, she dismissed it all as part of her pregnancy.