An Auckland mum has spoken out about her terrifying experience catching COVID-19 while she was seven months pregnant.
Ruthie Nielsen spent 34 days in Jet Park Hotel quarantine with her family and was rushed to hospital twice with severe complications.
She wants her ordeal to motivate Māori to get vaccinated.
Nielsen is now enjoying time at home with her healthy and happy baby Hope, but it wasn't always this way.
As part of the new health campaign to encourage Māori to get the vaccine, she has revealed the pregnancy was touch and go.
"September the fourth of last year I was seven months pregnant and I contracted COVID at a tangi," she says.
The 31-year-old was in quarantine for more than a month with 17 of her extended whanau and while there, was rushed to Middlemore Hospital twice.
First when the baby stopped moving, the second when she developed severe pneumonia.
"It was really hard, I couldn't breathe well on my own, I had oxygen, couldn't sleep lying back, I had to sleep sitting up," Nielsen says.
She's sharing her personal story to encourage more than 500,000 Māori to get vaccinated this year.
Public health doctor and senior lecturer in medical education at the University of Auckland Dr Mataroria Lyndon says it's important Māori get the jab.
"If Māori contracted COVID they're more likely to be hospitalised, severe illness and that's why it's important that there's encouragement of the uptake among Māori."
Surveys reveal Māori are less likely to get the vaccine than non-Māori.
They also show 41 percent of Māori needed more information on the jab and 30 percent didn't know it was free.
"We are expecting over the next month and as we lead towards the second half of the year that those numbers will pick up but more importantly our infrastructure will be able to deliver to more of our communities across Aotearoa," says Labour MP Peeni Henare.
Nielsen is eagerly waiting in line.
"I don't want other whanau to have to go through what I've been through, if there's a way that can be prevented I would 100 percent take it."
While 2020 was tough, 2021 has been a triumph of Hope over adversity.
