Thousands sign petition calling for restrictions on birthing partners to be eased in Wales
Video report by ITV Wales reporter Kate Lewis
It's supposed to be one of the happiest times of your life, but for many expectant parents in Wales, the coronavirus pandemic has turned both pregnancy and childbirth into a different experience.
Since March, when lockdown was first announced, restrictions have meant that partners can only be present for "active labour" and birth, and they must leave shortly afterwards with no visitation rights if the mother needs to stay in hospital.
It has led to many women spending the early stages of labour alone, and some struggling to cope in hospital in the days following birth.
First-time-mum Beth Giles gave birth to her son, Oliver, seven weeks ago.
Although her partner, Steve, was present for the birth, complications afterwards meant that Beth had to remain in hospital while Steve was sent home and not allowed to visit.
"It was incredibly lonely, really scary, I'd never done this before", Beth told ITV Wales.
"I had canulas in my hands, I couldn't even pick Oliver up without a lot of pain and was really uncomfortable, so I was scared of dropping him and I had no-one really for support."
Beth says her partner Steve was at home worrying and unable to help.
After two days in hospital, Beth decided to discharge herself.
"I literally just couldn't cope being on my own anymore", she said.
"As soon as I walked out the doors to Steve I just couldn't hold myself together at all. It was supposed to be the happiest time of my life... and it just went from scary to really sad."
Beth says she believes the restrictions also affected her partner's initial ability to bond with their son.
"I think he had a little bit of trouble bonding with Oliver, initially, because he felt like he'd missed out on those important first couple of days... he does feel that he lost a special time."
She would like to see the restrictions eased to allow birthing partners to stay with women from the moment they go into labour, and include visitation rights in the days that follow.
"People were going to the pubs, kids were back in schools, they were all free to mingle with each other, and I wasn't allowed the father of my child who I lived with or my mum who we'd bubbled up with, they weren't allowed to come and see me and it just makes no sense."
What are the restrictions on birthing partners in Wales?
Only one person is allowed to accompany a woman in "active labour" - meaning 4 centimetres dilated and experiencing regular contractions.
The birthing partner must leave shortly after birth. This is "a few hours", according to Public Health Wales, though some say a one hour rule has been enforced.
Visitors are not allowed on the antenatal or postnatal wards.
Following revised guidance issued in the summer, partners can now attend:
12-week pregnancy scans.
Early pregnancy clinic.
20-week anomaly scans.
Attendance at the Fetal Medicine Department.
Beth is not alone in demanding change. More than 6,000 people across Wales have now signed a petition calling for birthing partners to be allowed at scans, the start of labour, birth and after the birth.
The campaign to ease restrictions is backed by Member of Senedd Bethan Sayed, who herself gave birth to a baby boy in April during the height of lockdown.
"I had an induction so I was in hospital for about 3-4 days on my own without any support from my partner or from my family", Bethan told ITV Wales.
"I was able to have my partner in for active labour, but then I had to have an emergency c-section. He was allowed in for that, but within an hour of me coming out of a pretty intense operation, he had to leave.
"And they were very persuasive in terms of making sure that he was out, which of course I understand because they were the rules, but that meant I'd just had this invasive operation, I was meant to look after my son and I didn't know what to do at that time, I was a new mother and very, very anxious about being left alone."
Bethan says the experience was "very very difficult", as she "couldn't move and had to seek help for anything that I did".
She added: "The midwives did help as much as they could, we had a system where we could contact them at any given time, but they were rushed off their feet. So sometimes mothers relied on one another to go and get the milk or go and get goods for one another from the trolley or food, which isn't ideal, and we were just very lonely."
Three days after the birth, Bethan was discharged from hospital and she and her son were able to return home. But she says the restrictions "took away some of those amazing opportunities" for her partner in the initial stages.
Bethan says she wrote to Health Minister Vaughan Gething two weeks ago calling for changes to the current restrictions, but is yet to receive a response.
"We've written to Vaughan Gething over two weeks ago now, to say that we believe that partners should be able to come in for the duration of when the partner is in hospital, and for labour and to stay afterwards for a given amount of time, an hour just isn't good enough. But we haven't had a response.
"I appreciate it's a worldwide virus, but there are ways we can make it more empathetic and better experiences for women, and I've talked to so, so many since I have given birth and they all say the same thing. Allow the partners in so that we can then look at this in a more positive light."
ITV Wales News approached Health Minister Vaughan Gething and received a written statement from his office, which said: “The safety and wellbeing of mothers and babies, as well as the staff who support them, is at the heart of the maternity visiting guidance at this time.
"A partner can be present when a woman is in active labour. The revised guidance published on 20 July also extended visiting to specific ultrasound scan appointments.
“Health boards will take individual circumstances into account to enable a partner or a nominated person to be present when a woman is using maternity services if she has mental health needs, a learning disability or a cognitive impairment or needs extra support to process information.”
Professor Jean White, Chief Nursing Officer, who advises the Welsh Government on all aspects of care including maternity, told ITV News that Wales could soon look to allow individual health boards to make their own decisions on restrictions.
She said local health boards could be given "more authority" to make "more local decisions about visiting to reflect the infection rate within their community, and that guidance is being looked at at the moment and will be issued shortly."