No hugs for Inverness granny as new baby battles brain bleed

Four weeks on from the birth of her first grandchild, Inverness grandmother Jacqueline McCairn has never held the tiny baby in her arms.

She wants nothing more than to be able to give her daughter a hug, after a traumatic delivery and after her first grandson developed a serious medical condition.

Instead, the proud grandmother is watching her daughter and son-in-law becoming a new family through a window.

This is the reality of family life under lockdown.

The McCairn's situation is just one snapshot of the difficult situations families are dealing with across the country as restrictions continue into a fourth week.

Proud grandparents are meeting grandchildren over tablet screens for the first time, new parents are getting by without face-to-face visits from health visitors, friends and family.

And procedures that may have required a visit to a hospital or doctor's surgery are being managed at home by worried, tired but devoted new mums and dads.

Jacqueline told the BBC her grandson Lincoln was a longed-for miracle who came from a first cycle of IVF treatment.

Her daughter Gemma Bell and her son-in-law Dean were ecstatic to welcome their first child.

Jacqueline told the BBC: "This is the time when mums would normally be stepping in to help. I fully intended to go and give night feeds and give them a chance to sleep and give them a break.

"But there are no visitors to the house, no post natal checks - the health visitor can only make telephone calls.

"I really want to hug my daughter because she had a really difficult labour and was transferred to a different hospital. I feel for her and for all the mums in this situation. They are going through it on their own."

To add to the difficulty of the situation, baby Lincoln developed a blood clot on his brain, so new parents Gemma and Dean have to give the baby injections twice a day.

All grandparents Jacqueline and Pat can do is look on.

Jacqueline said: "We feel a bit like peeping Toms but we go over every couple of days to take them what they need and see them through the French windows at the back of their house."

She is proud of how the couple have coped with an unprecedented situation and now look forward to the time when they can all be together.

She said: "My husband and I just need to be able to hold our daughter, keep her safe and have our grandson in our arms.

"The first thing we will do is have lots of cuddles.

"And I have a family Moses basket which my mother used for all of us. I have it all ready and I just can't wait to see him in it."