Being there for the birth was something that was extremely important to him, because his daughter in law was from Arizona, America and had none of her own family to support her.

"I could not believe it, we are living in a world of technology contact only, nothing physical," he said.

"With travelling distance of about four hours [since the birth was in Newcastle] there was no chance of any visits until lockdown changed."

Paul and his wife were not able to be at the birth, but said had restrictions not been in place they would have been there.

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"My wife and mother of six children was going to be there to offer help and guidance where possible to our daughter in law Cassie and son Blake during the birth of their first child but this just couldn't happen," he said.

"There was no admittance to the maternity section by anybody, this is an experience we have missed and will never get back."

Despite not being able to go into the ward for the birth, the new grandparents were able to be approved to meet in the courtyard.

"There was excitement on our part, waiting for the first look at our new granddaughter, just our second grandchild," he said.

"We got to see her and she beautiful, tiny and quiet, just as as expected. We got to hold her but I kept my kisses for her until a later date."

The grandparents then came back to Lithgow, not realising that lockdown laws were coming and they wouldn't see their new grandchild for weeks.

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"COVID-19 has taken away a very special part of all parents and grandparents lives, the witnessing of the birth and first hours of your grandchildren," he said.

"Then to visit with the fear of possibly passing on something you did not even know you had.

"The next time I see my granddaughter, would she be one year old already? Nobody knows."

Paul said that he was happy he got to see his granddaughter and that the family was now bigger by one.

New mother Cassie Vanstone gave birth to her daughter Eloise in the morning of March, 21. The same day that the government announced that things were closing in NSW.

"They had already changed the rules at the hospital to where only one person was allowed into the birth suite during labour so only my partner, Blake, was allowed in."

With her mother in law visiting at the time, she also would have been in the sweet but she wasn't allowed.

"We also weren't allowed any visitors in the hospital after the birth which was pretty hard since Blake's parents were up in Newcastle in anticipation of the birth," she said.

"I ended up having to have a c-section at the last minute so unfortunately had to stay in hospital for a few days making it so they were unable to meet her right after she was born."

Cassie had a student midwife that went through her whole pregnancy with her.

"Luckily she was able to be there for the birth, however I went into labour just in time to get that privilege because the day after our daughter was born they cut student privileges in the hospital and our student midwife wouldn't have been allowed in," she said.

Cassie said the hardest part about having a newborn during all of this has been not being able to visit family and friends.

"They didn't announce full quarantine until about a week after she was born, but since our closest family is three plus hours away in the Blue Mountains they weren't able to just come over for an hour or so to visit," she said.

"Blake's parents did make it up in that week before they started handing out fines for unnecessary travel and were able to stay with us for a couple nights allowing them to meet their first granddaughter, which was pretty lucky.

"We tried to not think about it to much and how much we wished everyone could meet her and instead tried to just enjoy the time we had together as a new family of three."

For Cassie, it was extremely hard as all her family is in America and she doesn't know when they will get the chance to officially meet their little girl.

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"My sister had a trip booked for May and has had to cancel it until further notice," she said.

"We always knew it would be a little while before we got to visit with all of my family back home but now it seems like it is going to be much longer then we ever anticipated which is extremely hard."

Cassie hopes that they will be able to travel internationally before Eloise's first birthday.

"Again, I am trying not to think about that to much because I get very sad thinking they may not meet her until she is already a year old or possibly even longer," she said.

COVID-19 also made going to the shops a bit of a "scary thing" for the new parents as they didn't want to take the baby out, and since Cassie was recovering from her c-section her immune system was lowered making her more susceptible to the virus.

"Another thing that ended up being harder to do was claiming our partner payment from Centrelink since the announced business would have to close pretty much the day she was born," she said.

"We went to login the next day to submit our final forms saying she had been born but Centrelink had crashed and we weren't able to get everything loaded for over a week.

"Then once we were able to get everything in place processing was even slower than usual so we didn't start receiving our payments until about a month after she was born."

Cassie said it was also scary thinking about the future since both her and her partner work in hospitality as chefs and their jobs and hours have been cut substantially.

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The main positive to the whole situation, according to Cassie, has been the time they have been able to spend with their daughter, that not all parents get when you have to go back to work soon after birth.

"We have had more quality one on one time with her and Blake has been home longer instead of being back to work after the planned three weeks he was going to take off," she said.

"That ended up being a big positive especially since I had an unplanned c-section and was unable to do as many things."

Cassie said overall it has been a bit strange, but "this is a pretty strange time for everyone".

"We have been doing our best with isolation and taking advantage of a daily walk to get out of the house a bit," she said.

"We are happy now that we are allowed to visit up to five people, and have since finally been able to visit with all of Blake's siblings."

This story is part of an on-going series where we look at how different Mothers have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic while pregnant or with a newborn baby.