One-in-five British women who gave birth in December were told to wear masks during labour, a poll suggests, despite medical guidance advising against it because it could cause “potential harm”.
The poll of 936 women conducted by the charity Pregnant Then Screwed and seen by BBC News revealed that some 20 per cent were ordered to wear a mask by medical professionals attending them at births, including 10 per cent having a natural birth and 50 per cent having a caesarian section.
This was against the recommendations laid out in a briefing document from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). Despite one in five women being told to do so, the RCM’s Dr Mary Ross Davie, who wrote the body’s guidance on mask-wearing during labour, claimed she believed such instances of women being forced to do so were “very rare”.
Rosie Brown gave birth while being forced to wear a face covering and told the BBC that while in labour, the mask “was just put on my face” and that because she had been so “conditioned” to wear them, “I didn’t question it”.
“Someone put the mask on me. I said ‘you can’t be serious’, and she replied ‘yes’,” Natalie Titherington also told the broadcaster, adding that while wearing the mask during painful contractions, she was “gasping for air” and “felt completely suffocated”.
“I tried to remove the mask at one point, but I was told I had to put it back on,” she added.
The hospital where Ms Titherington had her stressful labour, the Royal Oldham NHS Hospital, claimed the incident was a “one-off”.
Joeli Brearley, the founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, told The Guardian: “Research that we did in December showed that just 53 per cent of women are feeling listened to in labour.”
Ms Brearley continued: “When you overlay that with the fact that 50 per cent of women who are having C-sections are being told to wear a mask, and 10 per cent of those in natural labour, you’re adding a literal communication barrier when birthing restrictions mean that some women are birthing alone.”
An NHS spokesman told the newspaper: “Guidance to hospitals has been absolutely clear that women who are giving birth are exempt from wearing a facemask, and every hospital in England should be following this.”
The impact of the Chinese coronavirus and related restrictions have affected other aspects of maternity care in the United Kingdom, with husbands and other birthing partners during the first lockdown in March 2020 initially unable to attend early stages of labour, with some fathers missing the birth entirely. In turn, some mothers were forced to give birth without the support of a loved one.
Finally, in mid-December, the NHS introduced new rules that pregnant women could have someone by their side “at all stages of her maternity journey”, including scans, labour, and birth.
In November, it was reported that 14 per cent of parents with ill newborns were being blocked from visiting their babies in hospital because of Covid restrictions.