NEW YORK >> Rebecca Arian, a few hours into labor at a Brooklyn hospital, was balancing on her hands and knees, trying to ease a biting contraction in her lower abdomen with no painkillers.

Then her midwife walked into the room and delivered upsetting news: Arian, 32, had tested positive for the coronavirus. While Arian tried to process this, the staff asked her to put on a surgical mask.

Wearing the mask during childbirth made it feel like she was gasping for air while her body was splitting in half, she said. In that moment, a potential diagnosis of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, was the last thing on her mind.

“I was dealing with the idea of getting the baby out of me,” said Arian, whose son was born in May.

Each year, over 100,000 infants are born in New York City, where the pandemic has now reshaped the experience of childbirth. The virus has added more tension into what is an already uncertain process, as women are entering hospitals that have been overrun by a disease that has killed nearly 22,000 in the city and more than 120,000 nationwide.

Most women, like Arian, are immediately tested for COVID-19 when they enter maternity wards; then they may spend hours waiting for the result. In many cases, they go through labor in a mask. Some pregnant women with the virus have reported feeling shunned by staff members who they believe are fearful of contracting the illness.

Jesse Pournaras, a New York City-based doula, has tracked hospital policies in the city during the crisis and says they have been difficult to determine and “extraordinarily variable,” and have contributed to New Yorkers’ anxiety.

“People are confused and they’re upset, and they’re going into the labor and delivery units in a state of fight or flight,” Pournaras said.

During the pandemic, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has tried to shape guidelines for childbirth at hospitals, but his executive orders on the subject created confusion because facilities interpreted them differently. Critics have also said it felt like New York slid back to a time when pregnant women had less input over their care.

Infectious diseases experts said there had been little evidence of maternity patients acquiring the virus in the hospital.

“We have not seen a significant number of hospital-acquired infections in labor and delivery,” Dr. Jeanne Sheffield, director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Johns Hopkins.

However, Sheffield said, labor and delivery staff members have reported getting sick after being exposed to virus-positive patients.

“We certainly do know of cases that came in positive and ended up transmitting to nurses and physicians,” she said. “Those reports were more abundant earlier on in the outbreak and have become less as we’ve learned to screen better and do better testing.”

On the whole, maternity care has morphed in the wake of the virus. In-person prenatal appointments are being canceled or conducted remotely, especially if someone has symptoms of COVID-19. Hospitals have suspended maternity ward tours and obstetric classes.

Doulas and one healthy support person are now allowed in the delivery room in most hospitals in New York City. But typically no one can leave the room once they arrive.

“I’m teaching my patients to go in like they’re camping,” said Denise Bolds, a doula who works in the city. “I’m telling my families they have to pack food, hydration and clothing.”

Hannah Mermelstein, 40, said she sat with her partner, Gretchen Virkler, 36, for three days as she labored at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. Then their medical team called for a cesarean section. The hospital’s policy — which has since changed — meant Mermelstein was not allowed in the room.

As Virkler prepared to go to the operating room, tears fell down their faces and they sang to each other in Hebrew.

“I wanted to be there for the birth of my child and I wanted to be there for Gretchen,” Mermelstein said.

In some cases, hospitals have separated women who test positive for COVID-19 from their newborns to protect the infants.

Cristal Brown, 36, of Brooklyn, checked into NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital to give birth in late March. She was tested for the coronavirus when she arrived.

The next morning, Brown learned her result was positive. Her boyfriend, Jose Bueno, was asked to leave immediately. “I felt shocked and helpless,” she said.

When the baby was born, a hospital worker held up the child — named Jose after his father — so that Brown could see him. Then the staff quickly took him away.

“I never held him, put him on my chest,” she said.

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