Queensland Health makes U-turn over Covid births ban on partners

Pregnant women who are Covid positive will now be able to have two support people in the birthing suite following reporting by The Courier-Mail this week that women were so afraid of partner bans they were opting for freebirthing.

Pregnant women who are Covid positive will now be able to have two support people in the birthing suite, including partners who are considered close contacts, following reporting by The Courier-Mail this week that women were so afraid of partner bans they were opting for freebirthing.

The news coverage highlighted that both the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union and private midwives wanted clear rules for pregnant women set out by Queensland Health to help ease the tsunami of anxiety.

On Friday the new health directive was announced. Previously the regulations prevented Covid positive women from having their partners who were considered close contacts present during the birth due to isolation requirements. This was not only causing problems for women but for their midwives who feared women were being dudded out of a good birthing experience.

The QNMU has praised their midwives from the Royal Brisbane Womens Hospital for highlighting the problems in the maternity wards with the previous health directions.

The Maternity Consumers Network has also been campaigning for change and Alecia Staines from the consumer body has praised the move towards commonsense.

“Big thank you to The Courier-Mail for highlighting this important problem and helping advocate for change,” she said.