Oral history interview with Lauren Bode

Oral history interview with Lauren Bode

Lauren Bode discusses the challenges of pregnancy and parenthood during the COVID-19 pandemic. She reflects on her loneliness and sadness at missing milestones like an in-person baby show, but also felt guilty knowing so many others were suffering. There were questions about whether her husband could be in the delivery room when her daughter was born, and she contrasts that experience with the birth of her son three years later. As a parent, she speaks about her fears that her daughter might catch COVID, including one point when her daughter's daycare was closed because staff tested positive. She also relates worrying that her daughter would be impacted by the circumstances under which she was born.

At the time of this interview, Lauren Bode of St. Albans, Vermont, was a pharmacist at a primary care clinic and part of the University of Vermont Health Network. She has also served as director of the Vermont Pharmacists Association. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was employed by the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences as both an educator and researcher. She was seven months pregnant with her daughter, Eleanor, when lockdown began in March 2020 and had a son, Ezra, in February 2023.

Sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-251676-OMS-22.

2024-01-19

Collecting COVID-19: A Vermont Story Project

AudioFileCOVID-008

MP3

WAV

Audio file

Permission to publish material from the Collecting COVID-19: A Vermont Story Project may be obtained from the Vermont Historical Society.

Johnson, Mark

Bode, Lauren

1 hr., 40 min., 43 sec.

Vermont Historical Society Library, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641-4215