As a petition to change a hospital rule implemented in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic nears 7,000 signatures, the province says it has changed the regulation to allow fathers and other support people more time with newborns before they are asked to leave.
Eastern Health implemented visitor restrictions two weeks ago in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, banning all visitors except parents of sick children, those visiting a person at the end of their life and one designated visitor per patient in delivery rooms. The measures are in line with similar restrictions in some other provinces.
Once a new parent and baby are moved to the obstetrics floor, which happens in many cases within a couple hours of birth, no visitors are allowed. That includes the baby’s second parent, whether or not they live at home with the parent giving birth.
Angela Butler Bailey, 36, of St. John’s started an online petition on change.org Thursday, asking the health authority to change the rules. She had just learned of the visitor restriction that day and told The Telegram she and her partner, Glen Sturge – who had both been self-isolating in preparation to be at the hospital for their baby’s birth - were devastated that he wouldn’t be able to remain with her and the baby beyond the delivery room.
“The nurse said, ‘Oh, by the way, your partner won’t be able to stay with you after the baby is born,’” Butler Bailey said. “I cried.”
Butler Bailey questioned the rationale behind forcing fathers and other support people to leave the hospital once they had already been screened and allowed in for the birth and hadn’t left the facility since. She said she felt anxious at the thought of having to spend the first couple days with their baby girl without him and wondered about the effect of the restriction on some new parents’ mental health.
“If Glen is allowed there for the birth, why not on the fifth floor? They are taking away my support person, but they are also taking away his experience of being with his baby in the first few days of her life,” she said.
“I understand this is a serious public health issue and I fully support the things being done to try and stop the spread of the virus,” she says. “But how does it make sense to allow my partner there for the birth, but then make him go home for that reason, when people are allowed to walk around grocery stores, Costco and Walmart instead of having to get their groceries delivered?”
During the province’s government’s regular daily COVID-19 briefing Friday afternoon, Health Minister John Haggie responded to questions about the controversial hospital restriction. In light of the comments, he said, the rule has now been changed to allow a second parent or a support person to stay and bond with a new baby for a few hours after birth. It’s a reasonable compromise between two conflicting approaches, he said.
“The problem is that at the end of the day, anyone who is interacting with anyone else is at risk of contracting the disease or passing it on. Our newborns and mothers are vulnerable to a virus that is no respecter of age or condition.”
Haggie pointed out that typically a new parent and baby leave the hospital within 24 hours after the birth.
Erin O’Reilly, chairwoman of the Doula Collective of Newfoundland and Labrador, a group of women trained and certified in providing support to families before, during and for a period of time after a baby is born, told The Telegram on Thursday she felt the restriction was cruel and would cause more harm than good to families. She asked for the science to back up the belief that having a partner in hospital for a short period of time lowers the transmission rate of the coronavirus than if they had stayed for longer.
O’Reilly said she had been receiving inquiries from expectant parents about whether she would support an unattended home birth; something she would never do.
Haggie said Friday he believes families should accept that obstetrics is focused mostly on risk reduction, and hospital deliveries have proven successful.
“It would be very unfortunate if someone escaped COVID-19 and had a major problem with a home delivery,” he said. “I think it would be incumbent on the mom to weigh that very heavily before trying that route.”
Eastern Health has not yet replied to questions posed by The Telegram regarding the visitor restriction on the maternity ward in light of COVID-19.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
Facebook: @telegramtara
with files from Peter Jackson
