victory in the first test. now on bbc news, we follow three expectant mothers, from canada, argentina and the uk, as they cope with the challenges and the uncertainty of being pregnant during the covid crisis, in lockdown babies — pregnancy in a pandemic. are you sure? this is my 34—week belly. my partner lives overseas. snoring. baby's right here.

a quarter of the world's population is now living under some form of lockdown due to coronavirus. more than 3 billion people in almost 70 countries and territories have been asked to stay at home. 0.99... not seen that before. not that we have anywhere to drive to right now. my partner is supposed to be checking in for his flight. which obviously isn't happening. 0k, hold on, hold on. take a second, because the next time you walk out of this building, we're going to have our baby with us. you ready?

i've got the really short ones because we're having a summer baby. i expect it to be quite hot. hi, dog. my name is melinda and i am 33 years old. i live in london and my partner lives overseas. i am 38—weeks pregnant with my first baby. he lives in barbados. my dad's bajan, so i go there quite often, so that is how we met. it is a long—distance relationship but we are doing 0k. we just thought we'd throw a baby into the mixjust to spice it up a bit! this is an exact side—profile of daddy. i was like, "yes, this baby looks like his dad, ioo%." my partner was due to fly out in a couple of weeks to be here for the birth. due to the virus, we have had to postpone his flight indefinitely.

we speak every day and that helps to keep in contact, but it is difficult. the first week of working from home was really, really difficult. i literally just had the news on constantly. that was when they were making announcements to change the excel centre near me into a hospital and building these morgues and everything. i just felt like it was something out of horror movie, the world is going to end. i am going to have start stockpiling food or running in other people's abandoned houses and finding their stockpiled food! it was all a bit crazy. by the time we got to lockdown, i was begging for it because it was getting really scary. this is the baby's room. it was meant to be completed by now. but the floor isn't done. so it has become a bit of a dumping ground, waiting for this bed to be moved. but we can't due to coronavirus, can't get the flooring

done due to coronavirus. you have an image of how it is going to look and now it is this dumping ground of baby stuff. had to cancel my baby shower, just lots of things that you are looking forward... sorry! sorry, i didn't mean to get upset. it is just a really hard time. it just kind of took away the enjoyment of having a baby and all the little things that aren't really a big deal by themselves. but i think once you get over that and, like, you realise, 0k, this is out of my control, these are small things in the grand scheme of my health and my baby's health and so on, you kind of adjust. i have got lots of parcels delivered randomly with lots of different gifts.

so, it was still exciting, it was still fine, i still got spoiled, just in a different way. modern—day social distancing cards meant that all my messages were printed. this book that my mum got me, baby's first year. "this is a page from a newspaper on the day you were born." not entirely sure i want to put that in there, you know? these things were in the news — coronavirus. this will be a really interesting thing for baby to look back on, because we are in a moment of history, aren't we? there is my mum bringing me some shopping. thank you! the last two weeks is now back into the almost nine months pregnant mode of "i'm glad i'm at home, i just want to sleep." so, my mum lives nearby, we have been cooking for each other. all right. see you later. bye now. i get people doing all my shopping

for me, so you look at the perks of being able to sit at home and rest, which is really what i should be doing now anyway. what a weird time. basically, this video is because i have been thinking a lot about how one day i am going to try and explain to my kid what was going on in the world a month before they were born, and it is not even going to make sense. i am not even going to know how to explain it. i thought i will vlog as much as possible, so one day i can just turn this video on and show them what things looked like, what andy and i were up to, and, sadly, what the world looked like a month before they were born. today, we are going to install our car seat. oh, well, isn't that cute?

locked, loaded and ready to go. ready to roll! you feel like a dad yet? everywhere you look around and it is quiet. there is somebody over there. unfortunately, andy works in the restaurant business. every restaurant in vancouver has been forced to close. yep. just like many other places in the world right now, which is so crazy when you actually think about it. and andy was luckily one of the very few that got to work until the very end. but now... it's time. it's time to be unemployed for a little bit. i'm going to practise social distancing now. yeah!

today i had to empty out the coolers and clean the place up, and now we are sitting alone in an empty restaurant. hopefully, it will not be much longer until you're back in here. hopefully, not long. put them out. 0.99. not seen that before. not that we have anywhere to drive right now. but i have never filled up gas that cheap. it's been years since it's been that cheap. years and years. she speaks spanish

so, how is your first day of unemployment? i'm technically still employed today. today's a sick day. today's a vacation day. sorry, a vacation day. tomorrow is my first day of unemployment. we laugh because we're trying to make light of things after i literallyjust finished crying because i am so overwhelmed. cheers for the health care workers. seven o'clock cheers just went off. this is pretty much all that is happening just now. we wake up... we eat breakfast. we clean up. we eat lunch. we clean up. we make dinner.

having my husband home has been kind of like a blessing in disguise. he has been able to calm my nerves, keep me more calm through all of this. this is my 34—week belly. getting ready to leave for what is going to be a very unique midwife appointment. this is the first appointment since all of the coronavirus self—isolation has been going on. so, for the first little bit of our appointment, we are going to be sitting in the car going over how i am feeling. hello? hello. have you gotten any word from bc women's on what they're doing for family members that want to be close by? do they have anything in plan, or no? no, i would encourage them to not be close by. they are being quite restrictive on visitors. so, even if they are close by, it is going to be disappointing. you would be much better offjust connecting with them on facetime or something. all right.

telephone call is done, now we are going to go into the clinic to check the ba by‘s heartbeat. but the news about the family literally broke my heart. i know. hello. hello, mum. so, the appointment was good? heartbeat was good, everything was good. it was between 150 and 155. she said it was fast because the baby had just kicked and had just started moving around. my belly. looking very big! very big, so this is me at 39 plus one. it's a bit strange waking up every morning thinking this could be the last morning i wake up pregnant. these could be the last kicks and stuff that i feel. so, yeah, quite nerve—racking, but exciting as well. me and the dog, i had a chat

with him a couple of months ago. i was like, "i'm very sorry, your life is about to change." he'll have his head here, the baby will be here. and you'll feel, like, boom—boom—boom on his head and he doesn't move at all. hejust sits there. it is like the baby's saying, "get off me." and he is like, "no." dog snores. ba by‘s right here. i'm getting ready to go to the hospital. midwife appointment today. i don't really know what to expect. i haven't really been out of the area for three weeks since the last appointment, so it is a bit strange going out now. it is the first time i am getting on a bus since we have been boarding through the back doors. today we have passed the highest death toll in europe, so we do now have the highest death

toll in europe which is concerning. i live in newham, which has one of the highest death tolls in the country on a borough—level. so, very scary to be going out of my little bubble of protection. there is the nhs nightingale london. i'm waiting to pass, and people are just... the one place you would expect social distancing to be happening, literally i stopped to pass through a doorway and people just walked past me. this is what i don't like. this is when i start to get anxious. anyway, i'm here. finished at the hospital.

i told you, it ramps up every time — so, this time, they gave us a face mask to wear. so, literally every appointment, it has escalated a bit more. but, yeah, everything is ok with baby, heartbeat is fine. got another appointment for next week when we will look at possibly booking an induction. it is so weird. this is the first time since the pandemic that i've actually been in a shop with actual baby clothes! i'm so excited! i have been looking at stuff online, but you don't feel the excitement because you're just clicking on a picture. being in a shop and seeing them, it was nice. it was just a nice bit of normality and i think because i am at the end as well, it was nice to have a bit of that "i'm having a baby" excitement back. look! that is just the cutest. yeah, i only came in for milk, believe it or not. i came in and showered immediately.

took out my hair and got in my pyjamas. hence, me looking like this. if i was a key worker and saw the amount of people out today, i would have been really upset. especially being in the borough that supposedly has the most deaths in london. today, i could see why. everyone lives their lives the way they live it, it is not for me to tell people how to live. it is just upsetting that, if we carry on the way we are, the longer this goes on, the longer it is before flights resume, the longer it is before my baby meets his or her dad. so, i am going to show you what i bought. there. it says, "cuddles are my favourite thing." even though i will be the only one cuddling them while social distancing. so, that is the bigger size. hopefully, if we are able to travel, this will be the age that baby

will be when we go to barbados for the first time. so, it could actually be an aeroplane outfit. fingers crossed!

i have been in labour for over 2a hours now. i know this is going to be it, because i'm being induced today. are you ready? not sure how to answer that. there is a contraction. i think this is the time when i'm supposed to turn the camera off. hold on, hold on. take a second, because the next time you walk out of this building, we are going to have our baby with us. come on, look. ifeel so emotional. take it all in. ready? yeah.

it's a girl! oh my god! i'm happy. i want to see her face, can you hold her up? there you go. we're just about to leave the hospital. andy's been making runs back and forth to the car. our families are outside waiting to meet us. it is going to be their first time meeting little indie. 0h! are you 0k? you 0k? excited to see them? very. very? hi! hello! aww!

look at everybody! look at her! hi, mum. we're going home now, indie. are you 0k? yeah, it was just hard not to let anyone get even close. my partner's supposed to be checking in for his flight. which obviously isn't happening. so, plan b. camera's out. we arejust going to have to film it. tomorrow is a new day, one step closer to me meeting my little person.

one step closer to me being a mum. she's a strong lady and i'm very proud of her. so, i am the lucky one. not she's lucky — i am lucky. well, it's been a few weeks since we had our girl, indie. she is doing really well. the heat wave conditions continuing in southern britain and into next week. temperatures remaining well above the seasonal average across

much of the uk but particularly across the south—east. much of the uk but particularly across the south-east. a warm and sunny day in the afternoon for most of us. the crowd eventually melting away, could stay grey and eastern counties with the onshore breeze feeling cooler —— the cloud. for most, you will see the sunshine and temperatures very pleasant, low 20s in the north, very warm in england and wales with humidity and hot in the south—east. this evening, staying mainly dry and very warm and muqqy' staying mainly dry and very warm and muggy, cloud affecting eastern counties of england once again, showers or thunderstorms in northern and western areas later in the night. warm and muggy night particularly for england and wales. no lower than 20 degrees in the south—east. next week staying warm and humid with quite a bit of sunshine but an increasing threat of thundery showers which could be

quite heavy. the devil is in the detail as to whether thunderstorms could develop. monday, the greatest threat in western parts, the irish sea, perhaps northern ireland in the afternoon. elsewhere, plenty of sunshine, very warm, that warmth and humidity creeping further north, northern england, southern scotland. maybe 33, 3a in the south—east. monday into tuesday, the thundery low over the bay of biscay continuing to drift north, that is what is developing the thunderstorms. bit of difficulty pinpointing where they will turn out but it looks like the northern half of the uk could be most at threat. further ones in the south—east in the afternoon. another very warm and humid day for much of england and wales and southern scotland. highs in the south—east again in the mid—30s. continuing to stay very

thundery through the week, warm with some sunshine around, but signs by the end of the week of temperatures returning a little bit closer to normal, turning a little bit fresher for all.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. amid growing anger at the lebanese government and mass demonstrations over last week's catastophic explosion in beirut, the country's information minister resigns. here in the uk, prime minister boris johnson says it's a "moral duty" and a "national priority" for schools to reopen fully in england next month. i'm very pleased that the prime minister is making schools a priority. i've been arguing for some time that my fear was that children were being left behind in this relaxation of lockdown. 400 taliban prisoners are to be released after a vote by afghanistan's loya jirga or grand assembly in kabul.