To limit the risk of infection, some doctors are doing prenatal checkups by phone or video conference. Some are implementing or considering limits on visitors in the delivery room. At some New York City hospitals, that meant no spouses or partners either, until the state said one person was allowed.
Federal recommendations say hospitals should consider separating infected mothers from newborns until the mother tests negative for the virus, but that is not a mandate, said Dr. Brenna Hughes, a Duke University specialist who helped write the obstetric groups’ guidance.
Some pregnant women are seeking to have labor induced early to avoid hospitals during a possible surge of COVID-19 cases, and others are suddenly deciding to give birth at home. Mainstream medical groups advise against both.
“We believe that planned hospital birth is the safest option for pregnant women,” Hughes said.
She added that for women who are planning to become pregnant, there’s no specific advice against it during the pandemic.
Some hospitals are seeing pregnant women from out-of-state virus hotspots, who are seeking to give birth in a safer environment. These include Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut, 35 miles from New York City, and Tufts Medical Center, 200 miles away, in Boston.
Tufts is not accepting any routine OB/GYN transfers from any COVID-19 surge areas that advise against travel, said spokesman Jeremy Lechan. “If a pregnant patient from one of these areas shows up in the clinic, they will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days before receiving care.” Women in labor will accepted but without anyone else.
Maureen Nicol, a single Columbia University doctoral student in early childhood education, will be giving birth to her first child out of state, not as planned. She expected to give birth in April at a Manhattan hospital with the assistance of a doula. But during a visit in March to her family’s Maryland home, New York became the nation’s coronavirus epicenter. She canceled plans to return.
Now she’s racing to find a new doctor and hospital, buy new baby supplies, and considering the possibility of giving birth with her doula on the phone.
“I’m just wishing for a healthy and safe delivery,” Nicol said. “And feeling I have some control in a time and situation where I feel like no one feels like they have control.”
Associated Press
