Is this the end? :(

[tollyfeeder]

I genuinely can’t help but worry that this is going to be the end of life as we know it.

I’m petrified that we’re heading into the next apocalypse.

I’m picturing food shortages, water shortages, no gas or electricity, crime, pretty much scenes from the walking dead.

I have a 4 week old baby I’m just so heartbroken that this is what her future could be.

I’m on maternity so I have the option to stay at home, but my husband has to go to work.

I’m asthmatic and I’m so worried I’m going to catch this and leave my baby without her mum :( :( :(

Tollyfeeder, bless your heart. Firstly in regards to your asthma the advice is to use your brown inhaler for the recommended dosage to ensure your lungs and airways are strong enough to cope to prepare you ‘IF’ you do catch Covid19.
Secondly it is perfectly normal for you to have all these fears, I’m guessing you also feel out of control and that just exacerbates your panic.
The best thing you can do right now to protect yourself and your baby is practice good hygiene. Ensure all door handles and areas of contact are sanitised regularly (if you don’t have antibac wipes use a weak bleach solution) particularly after anyone has visited! Ensure all visitors wash their hands immediately they enter your home and that the taps are sanitised after use.
Not only will you be protecting yourself and your baby, you’ll feel in better control and that could go some way to easing your anxiety.
This virus will have its way, and it will take out the some of the old and vulnerable. Take a good multivitamin, use your inhalers, practice good personal and home hygiene and I’m sure all will be well.
My best wishes to you x

OP, I'm sorry you're struggling. You might find it best to hide the coronovirus topic on mumsnet - there's a huge amount of panic and drama which will only feed your anxiety. I'm not a hugely anxious person, but even I start to panic when I read too many of the scaremongering threads.

If you can't do that then try to find the 'positive mental health' thread on coronovirus. It's where people are avoiding the scaremongering and posting more reassuring information.

Congratulations on your baby! Try to relax and enjoy her as much as you can.

The Spanish flu killed 9 million people after four years of the most terrible war. Society didn’t collapse then and it won’t now.

Sorry to add as I’ve just realised that didn’t sound very positive! Humans are social animals we like order and structure. I totally get why you feel this way but I don’t think you should be concerned.

My friend and I feel that this will certainly focus people’s minds to what’s really important in life, move away from material possessions and focus more on each other.
Help us get back to basics.

@tollyfeeder We're gonna be OK. This country has survived worst shit that coronavirus.

It's mass hysteria whipped up by the media - who should be ashamed of themselves frankly.

There are WAY worse viruses/diseases that have wiped out MILLIONS of people before... Ebola, malaria, SARS, bird flu etc...

Don't worry, hang on tight to your lovely new baby, and you'll be fine. (The vast majority of us will.)

Worse shit THAN coronavirus.

PLEASE get an edit button mumnset!

@DingleberryRose did you seriously join a board called MUMSnet tell new mothers it’s unkind to have children? Do you have any redeeming features?

Redeeming features? Like not bringing children into this world in the current climate? Its mind boggling that people are still doing so!

@Crackerofdoom
Best reply, I hope this is a wake up call for society and we can find better ways of living.
I’m not panicking despite being in two vulnerable groups because I can only do what I can to protect myself and my family .Herd immunity will increase and viruses always die down in the warmer months .
OP, as pp’s have said you are a mum of a newborn and your hormones are out of kilter, you worry for your baby but try to get as much sleep as possible and be kind to yourself. Watch tv, nap when you can and enjoy your baby.

I agree with the poster who suggested hiding the Coronovirus topic on MN and indeed limiting your access to information about it to once a day eg BBC website, Public Health England etc.

All anyone can do is use the information/advice available about how to live that day and then review as advice or your situation changes.

If you are currently feeling well and your baby is too, then make choices that reflect that eg you might not want to go to a busy shopping centre, but a walk around the park would be fine.

If you are feeling unwell, self-isolate. If your baby seems unwell, contact GP/call 111/ go to A&E if severe etc.

I was thinking yesterday that this situation must be very hard for women who are pregnant or with young babies, as most people feel anxious at that time anyway.

Take care and avoid information overload - it's just too much.

i know.. my baby is 2 mo and i've got a toddler and i've got so much anxiety about food shortages. it's not going to change anything and my rational brain says shhhh don't be silly but the other half is running away with itself.

@DingleberryRose for Christ’s sake have some compassion. You’re more of a danger than any of the above. The OP is suffering, don’t make it worse.

When my eldest DD was little, twelve years ago now, she was born with a condition which meant she needed surgery. All the evidence said she would be fine but I convinced myself she was going to either die on the operating table or be left with profound and severe learning disabilities. My Health Visitor at the time understood what hormones do to stress levels and very sensibly didn't test me for PND till after she had recovered from surgery. I was fine, she was fine. It is biologically wired into us to worry as mothers to newborns/young babies. You are catastrophising as a response to a combination of your pre-existing anxiety and the hormones. It will pass. Yes, it will cause pain and heartache to a lot of people but not on an apocalyptic/end-of-the-world level.

@MadamePewter I do have compassion. I know the world is as scary af right now. Do I think it’s going to end? No! We’ll keep on plodding on as we always do but we have to be smarter in the future.

Humans caused this current pandemic as we have cause many of the issues we face today. We need to do our bit to get the planet into a better state. Better diet (we need to stop farming and killing animals), have no or at the very least less children, be mindful with the amount of waste we produce and how we travel etc etc.

Those posting negative things should be ashamed of yourselves

Including the OP?? Hers was a negative thing.
I don't think we should be burying our fears. They should be given air and light, and most of all, perspective.

There are WAY worse viruses/diseases that have wiped out MILLIONS of people before... Ebola, malaria, SARS, bird flu etc...

SARS killed 774 people. Coronavirus is a different league entirely.
I'm not sure bird flu killed anyone...

Hope you're doing ok OP. Yesterday I was really down about CV & I feel it makes me more anxious that so many aren't taking it seriously enough.

However I saw a lovely post on fb this morn from someone who has been isolating in wuhan & found it really reassuring. I will try to add a couple of photos. Hope you have a better day today

Fb post from wuhan isolated ex pat

I'm not sure bird flu killed anyone...

Gosh, if only there was a way of finding out...

@Justaboy, until you’ve experienced post partum hormones, fuck off with the mansplaining will you.

I feel a bit like you, and mine are you young adults. I had a 3 week old baby when 9/11 happened and we survived. Just enjoy your new baby and try and shut the world out x

Oh hang on, here you go:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mortality_from_H5N1

Something this lethal will find it very difficult to embed itself in a human population, because it incapacitates and kills the sufferer before they've managed to spread it very far.

Part of the reason the coronavirus is spreading is because, in most cases, it's pretty mild. Info coming out of south korea - which is the only place to have done anything approaching proper testing - suggests a mortality rate of half a percent. This puts it in the same order of magnitude as the flu.

Thanks for that @buckeejit.

I switch from feeling really anxious and then thinking it's going to be okay.

I'm the same as you. I've convinced myself I'm going to die and leave Dd without a mum. I'm shitting myself so I've stopped googling and stopped watching the news. Ignorance is bliss!

The thing is the media aren't reporting the cases that have recovered and got better. In China over 60000 have recovered but the media are reporting as though all those hundreds of thousands of people are still severely ill.

There could be tens of thousands of people who have it or have had it recently and it's not been recorded because they haven't been tested for it. I know lots of people with symptoms but they won't test them for it because they've not been to certain countries. The death rate goes down dramatically if you think of it like that.

Also the death rate for younger adults with asthma is pretty low. Even the asthma website says not to worry and to make sure to take your preventer and just have your reliever handy in case it triggers any asthma symptoms.

I've got asthma which is controlled and I've never been hospitalised, never had a chest infection and I very rarely use my reliever. I'm more scared that my overall health is what will kill me off because I'm overweight and I don't look after myself. If you're otherwise healthy then I would try not to worry.

The OP is an anxious new mother, no one has posted saying it will all be fine la la la; but similarly saying don't understand why anyone has children anymore blah blah is not helpful in the slightest, it's nasty.