How working as a midwife has changed
Rachel O’Hanlon was driving slowly down a Nelson street at 2am when she was pulled over by police.
It was during alert level 4 and the policeman wanted to know what she was doing, coasting the streets at night when everyone was meant to be sticking close to home.
‘‘I’m trying to find a woman in labour and I can’t find her letterbox,’’ O’Hanlon told him.
So the policeman turned on his spotlight to help her search for the right house.
O’Hanlon said ‘‘everything had changed’’ for midwives since the coronavirus outbreak and alert level 4 restrictions came into effect at the end of March.
It also meant expectant mums had to get used to some big changes.
She said providing care through pregnancy was a personal job and midwives often became very close to the woman they worked with.
‘‘It is a big nine-month journey and now we can’t touch them apart from to do quick examinations.
‘‘It’s just not how we practice, we are normally quite cuddly, contact sort of people.’’
Their 45-minute home visits had been shortened to 15 minutes which were preceded with a phone call to go over any issues. Other family members were asked to stay in a different part of the house during a midwife’s visit, which involved checking blood pressure, heartbeat and the woman’s baby bump.
‘‘It feels a bit rude because we are used to coming in and having a cup of tea and talking to them.
‘‘It’s not that we don’t want to see them, we don’t want to burst their bubble.’’
A lot of time was spent ‘‘mapping bubbles’’, to understand who their clients were in contact with to protect mum, baby and midwife.
O’Hanlon said more of her work was being done over the phone, reassuring mums and talking through their increased anxieties and fears.
‘‘I know some of my colleagues have had days where they have spent five hours on the phone just ringing every client to reassure them and tell them it’s ok.
Some were fearful of an increased exposure to the virus if they went to hospital, concerned about not having a support person with them during labour or worried about learning to breastfeed.
Hospitals across the country have a no-visitor policy during the lockdown, but women are allowed a support person during labour, and up to two hours after birth.
After that, the partner or support person had to leave and couldn’t return.
‘‘That is really hard for new mums who have got little babies and dad’s who can’t go and see their new baby the next morning.
‘‘I think that’s meant for a lot of mums they are in a big hurry to get out of hospital because they don’t want to be separated from their families.’’
In the first three weeks of level 4, O’Hanlon had delivered two babies in hospital. Both mums went home several hours after the birth, despite their original plan to stay in hospital for 48 hours.
Figures from Nelson Marlborough Health showed since lockdown, 94 babies had been born at Nelson Hospital and six had been born at the Motueka Maternity unit.
O’Hanlon said requests for home births had increased and midwives were well-supported by Nelson Marlborough Health who had provided delivery and linen packs.
Since the outbreak, she had become a liaison between the district health board and lead maternity carers to keep them updated with changes in policy at each alert level.
There are 20 lead maternity carers across the Nelson Tasman region and three in Golden Bay.
They’d had to become IT savvy, attending Zoom meetings, joining Whatsapp groups and sending regular emails to keep connected.
Since antenatal classes had stopped, an online hub had been set up to keep mums educated, with a weekly Zoom meeting to enable them to connect and come together for support.