Atlanta mom with coronavirus gives birth to twins while in coma
Finally, some good news emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic
An Atlanta mother was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus while eight months pregnant, went into a coma, and woke up with twin girls.
Monique Cook appeared on Today with Hoda and Jenna Thursday to discuss her unique delivery. She told hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager that she began to feel shortness of breath while 34 weeks pregnant in March.
“My contractions started coming two minutes apart,” she said. “I knew something was wrong.”
Monique Cook was 34 weeks pregnant with twins when she tested positive for the coronavirus. In an emergency procedure, she gave birth to two healthy twins while in a coma.
We check in with the new mom and surprise her with a gift from Pampers. pic.twitter.com/71qMYTQgsf
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) May 7, 2020
Cook was taken to Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and placed in the intensive care unit where she then tested positive for COVID-19. At that point, Cook was told that she’d have to give birth via Cesarean section. She remembered being instructed to count down from 10 and everything went black.
When she woke up five days later, she was a mother of twin girls, August Sky and Angel Renee, born on March 24.
“The worst part of that waking up, I look down and I have no big stomach. No babies,” she said. “I remember asking like, ‘Where are my babies?’ That’s when the young nurse said, ‘Oh, your babies, they’re fine.'”
Cook explained that the hardest part of her experience was not being able to hold her babies after they were born or see her husband, Andre, as she recovered from the virus. The couple has two older daughters, Isis, 17, and Winter, 4.
“My husband sent one of the nurses a picture of the twins since I hadn’t seen them. It was nine days,” Cook said.
August Sky and Angel Renee (Credit: Monique Cook)
Cook was overjoyed to see her twins and began to cry.
She has since been released from the hospital and says, “It has just been awesome ever since.”
As for the health care she received while in such a challenging situation, Cook says she’s eternally grateful to the professionals who helped save her and her daughter’s lives.
“For somebody to fight for me that hard? It’s meant for me to be here,” she said. “I just want to tell them thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much, because they were my family that whole 11 days. … Without them, I wouldn’t be here.”
She told Kotb and Hager she’s happy to be reunited with her entire family.
“Family is complete; everybody’s home,” she said. “… Once they got home, it was like we were starting over. Forget the past month — now it’s like our new start.”
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