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Expectant Mothers Worry Over Changing Hospital Policies During Coronavirus Pandemic

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As their due dates get closer, many expectant mothers are concerned about how coronavirus concerns with impact their special day. 

“I had a doctor’s appointment on Monday and I can’t take my son to that anymore and I’m only allowed to take one person in with me,” said Paige Truax.

Truax is expecting her second child, a baby girl, to come in about three weeks.

With policies changing daily at hospitals, she’s worried she’ll be in the delivery room without her husband. 

“It’s definitely a hard time and it’s a scary time because so many things can happen when you’re giving birth and you might not always remember what’s going on and it’s just way better to have somebody there to support you during it and trying to keep you calm,” said Truax.

She plans to give birth at Munson Healthcare and for now, her husband is allowed in the room, but only him. 

“No kids are allowed in there so my son can’t meet his baby sister so that’s kind of hard,” said Truax. “When I had my son two years and we could have everyone there. Both our moms were there. My sister was there waiting to come meet him.”

In addition to the visitor policy, Munson had to make some other changes to keep mom and baby safe. 

“We’ve cancelled all of our prenatal classes,” said Mary Schubert, the executive director for women’s and children services at Munson Healthcare. “For office visits we are actually encouraging them not to bring a support person with them.”

Spectrum Health is also following similar procedures and only allowing one support person. 

That person is not allowed to leave the hospital until the mother is discharged.

“If we continue to allow the support person to come in and out of the hospital, we don’t really know where they’re going when they leave,” said Abby Young, a nurse at Spectrum Healthcare.  

For mothers like Truax worried policies could change and they won’t have a support person, Spectrum assures them it’ll all be ok.  

“If it did come down to that, I’m confident that our staff would step up to be able to, as best we can, fulfill that role for them,” said Young.

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