Cuomo Allows Birthing Partners in New York Hospital Delivery Rooms
As many New Yorkers know, last week, Mount Sinai Health System and New York-Presbyterian hospitals banned partners of laboring mothers from the delivery room. This action was made to reduce the spread of COVID 19. Understandably, many pregnant women found this unsettling and stressful of the possibility of laboring without family or friend support.
Thankfully, pregnant women in New York can breathe a sigh of relief. As of this Saturday, Melissa DeRosa, secretary to Cuomo, announced during the Governor’s daily briefing that Cuomo would be issuing an executive order mandating that hospitals allow partners in delivery rooms in both private and public hospitals.
“In no hospital in New York will a woman be forced to be alone when she gives birth,” Governor Andrew Cuomo stated on twitter Saturday afternoon.
“Not now, not ever.” Cuomo further stated in the same tweet.
As we shared earlier this week, laboring with support would never be ideal for a birth mother. There are medical as well as emotional reasons for this. Samantha Huggins, Co-founder of Carriage House Birth and a full spectrum doula explains that there are “things that partners might notice that wouldn’t come up on a screen for an OB or a nurse.” Further, there are times when nurses and doctors aren’t necessarily in the room. In those cases, a partner can be helpful in noticing any complications.
One Twitter user wrote, “From a 2nd-time mother about to deliver I can’t even begin to tell you the importance of having someone by your side not only emotionally but physically … This is horrendous and tremendously scary for the mothers.” Another said, “I am due to give birth in May and have extreme anxiety about the hospital’s decision … I beg you to reconsider.”
Thankfully, Governor Cuomo has come through for New York mothers in what should be one of the most important time of their lives.
