Mums must still give birth alone – even after deaths warning
MPS have attacked ‘unconscionable’ Covid rules that continue to ban partners from attending labour and scans, after a report linked lone births to maternal deaths.
The vaccination rollout among the NHS means all hospitals must drop visiting restrictions for partners, the MPs insist.
Last week, a study by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) concluded that pregnant women may have died during the pandemic because their partners were banned from attending hospital when they gave birth.
Tory MP Alicia Kearns said the findings ‘further prove that partners are fundamental to keeping mums safe during labour: they save lives. I’m heartbroken that any child will grow up without their mother.
‘Given the significant vaccination of NHS clinicians it is unconscionable for any NHS Trust to still be imposing draconian and dangerous restrictions on partners supporting mothers during labour or scans – to save lives they must all adopt the Government guidance, now.’
The Mail on Sunday has campaigned for months to end the trauma of women giving birth and attending scans alone.
In a win for the campaign in December, NHS England issued new guidance making clear all Trusts have to allow partners access ‘at all times’ – labour, scans and pregnancy appointments.
All Trusts committed to implementing it. However, during the current lockdown this progress was either halted or reversed.
NHS Trusts continued to ban partners while others that had lifted restrictions reimposed them. Chelsea and Westminster NHS Hospital Trust previously allowed partners access to all scans and now bans them from the 12-week scan.
In one example, a woman who last spring had a miscarriage, and had to attend all her appointments alone, is now being told her partner cannot be present during her scans for her current pregnancy.
The report, which examined maternity deaths between March and May last year, found that some women had died alone in hospital, and in other cases either delayed seeking care or discharged themselves early as a result of the ban on partners.
Grieving relatives said the fact they could not attend meant they had been unable to advocate for their loved one before their death.
Maria Booker, of campaign group Birthrights, said: ‘Excluding partners and supporters from maternity services not only causes acute distress, it also leads to pregnant women putting off seeking treatment or discharging themselves early to avoid being on their own.’
The r eport’s authors wrote: ‘Expectant fathers were unable to say goodbye to the mother of their child, which ‘ added to the families’ distress’.
Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP who chairs the Women and Equalities Select Committee, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This report is both distressing and worrying.
‘ We all suspected there was a profoundly damaging impact on keeping expectant mothers away from their loved ones, but here is the evidence.
‘I would urge all Trusts to make sure mothers-to-be are receiving the support they need.’
Ms Booker said: ‘This must be a wake-up call for all maternity services to implement NHS England guidance on lifting visiting restrictions in maternity services as a matter of urgency.’
Asked if it is doing anything to encourage all Trusts to follow its guidance on partner access, an NHS England spokesman said: ‘Our guidance for local services to implement has always been absolutely clear that mums should be accompanied by their partners for childbirth.’