Maternity services visiting and birthing partner update

We understand this must be a stressful and anxious time if you are pregnant and due to give birth in the coming months. Our maternity units are working around the clock right now to manage additional pressures and facilitate women’s choices.

We encourage you to have a birth partner present with you during labour and birth, including planned caesarean sections. Having a trusted birth partner present throughout labour is known to make a significant difference to the safety and well-being of women in childbirth.

If your birth partner has symptoms of coronavirus, they will not be allowed to go into the labour ward, midwife led unit, to safeguard your health and the maternity staff supporting you. We will be asking all birth partners to have their temperatures checked before coming into any of our units.

In response to new guidance, we however have changed our arrangements for our antenatal and postnatal wards, which are now unable to have any visitors, including birth partners. We encourage you to bring your smart phones or computers with chargers so you can still include your partner with your care using FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype.  The Health Board has free Wi-Fi that you can access. However, you will not be able to video / phone / live stream the ultrasound examination. This is because filming affects the concentration of the sonographer and increases the risk that they may miss something important. It also increases the length of the scan.

If you are planning a home birth the principles of one birth partner remains, checking your birth partner’s temperature and if your partner has symptoms of coronavirus we will ask them to not be present and to self-isolate.

If you would like any further information or clarification, please contact your community midwife. 

Good sources of up to date information can be found on our closed Facebook groups – Glangwilli Bumps and Babies; Boliau a Babanod Bronglais Bumps and Babies; Withybush Midwife Led Unit; and Pembrokeshire Antenatal Hub – and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) website https://www.rcog.org.uk/