CHICAGO – Preparing to have a child is difficult enough, let alone during a pandemic.

For moms, it will not be the scene they expected. No family or friends will be in the waiting room expecting the little one’s arrival.

At 38-weeks pregnant, Katie Minceck is expecting her second child and a much different experience compared to her first delivery.

“The best way to explain it is mentally preparing for not being able to be prepared,” Mineck said. “if we could have picked a date in time it would not have been now to decide to have a baby so definitly apprehensive about everything that could change in the coming weeks.”

The mom and dad of Oscar know they’ll be screened once they arrive at the hospital. From there, Northwestern OBGYN Dr. Julie Levitt said they’ll see fewer people on the unit and more protective gear.

“They will notice a little bit more masking whereas before we would go in and out of delivery rooms and you would see our faces,” Levitt said.

At Northshore University Healthsystem, a maternal and fetal medicine specialist said it’s all systems go.

“We are working really hard to acknowledge the emotional piece,” Dr. Richard Silver said. “We have miracles happening in terms of delivery but then families have to face a new reality in terms of what they expect what would happen with family and friends.”