Share your thoughts about how to give babies the best start in life, and chat to Andrea Leadsom MP about the government’s Early Years Healthy Development review

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

As some of you will remember, last year we hosted a thread with the Rt. Hon. Andrea Leadsom MP about the support that parents receive antenatally and in the early years, and the kinds of help that parents on Mumsnet found most useful when their children are very young.

Now Andrea is leading a Review within the Department of Health and Social Care to investigate how to ensure every baby has the best start in life. (Please note that the Review is focussed on England because this policy is devolved - although thoughts from parents outside England would still be interesting.)

The focus here is squarely on health and development (not childcare) in the period of time between conception and a child’s second birthday - what some specialists call ‘the first 1001 days’.

This period sees huge changes for families and has ramifications for a wide range of issues. From differences in birth weight to social and emotional development; from adverse childhood experiences in infancy to domestic abuse during pregnancy; and from mental health impacts for parents to how the COVID pandemic and lockdown have changed family life - Andrea would like to hear from Mumsnet users about your thoughts and your experiences.

The Department of Health and Social Care says: ‘We know the period from conception to the age of 2 is critical, with the potential to provide a solid foundation as babies grow and develop. We are committed to ensuring that every baby and young child has the best start in life, and that they are supported and nurtured to be school ready and to progress in life, no matter what their circumstances. The Government will work with academics, health professionals and other experts to identify policies and services that will improve the outcomes for vulnerable babies, children and their families.’

Andrea says: ‘I’m really looking forward to taking part in the Mumsnet early years thread and talking with parents about their experiences. I am keen to hear about the real life experiences of Mums, Dads, carers and health professionals and their ideas about what can be done to improve early years provision.’

‘The Early Years Healthy Development Review is focused on conception to the age of two, known as the first 1001 Critical Days. This is where the building blocks for good emotional and physical health are laid down, and these thoughts and experiences will be essential in helping shape the Review’s recommendations to ensure that every baby gets the best start in life.’

The Review is set to report in early 2021 - so this is a chance to directly influence government policy in this crucial area.

Andrea will have a Mumsnet log-in for this thread and will be reading your comments and responding to them directly over the next couple of weeks. Her first check in will be on Tuesday 3 November at 1pm, so if you’d like to talk to her ‘live’ we’d love to see you then - but if you can’t make it at that time please just post on the thread to add your thoughts.

Andrea’s keen to focus on the first 1001 days, so while you may be bursting to know what she thinks about other political issues, we’d appreciate it if you could remain on-topic as much as possible given how critical this issue is for so many Mumsnet users.

Some starters for ten:
What is (or was) important for you in the early years, including antenatally?
What would you have liked to have access to, but didn’t? What’s missing?
What would you like to say about your experience of the period from your child’s conception to their second birthday? What were the high points and low points when it came to health, development and support?

I had to pay to have my sons tongue tie snipped because the wait on the NHS was one month. There was no way I could have continued to breastfeed, in pain for a month.
And yet my friend, living in another county, managed to get her daughter’s tongue tie cut within days. Where is the continuity?

The support on post natal wards is woeful. Midwives are so overstretched, they have too many women and babies to care for. Staffing levels need to be increased. I was absolutely exhausted when I left hospital after my first baby. I feel it contributed to me developing post natal depression.

Huge congratulations on your triplets! I’m sure it can’t be easy to manage with three tiny babies, and I’m so glad to hear the support was outstanding. I wonder if you could give the project a bit more info on what you felt was a lack of understanding about the particular issues for triplets? What kind of advice and support would you have liked to see?

Hi Andrea - I'm a mum of twin babies and just wanted to add a couple of points from my own experience. While I also received excellent care during my pregnancy, I was shocked at the lack of knowledge the midwives and sonographers had asbout multiple births. For example, several of them told me that because my twins did not share a placenta, this meant they were non-identical. The consultant was the only person who told me that 30% of identical twins also have separate placentas (and a DNA test after birth revealed that mine were indeed identical). This is important to know for any health issues that might arise in future.

You also asked about impacts of the COVID pandemic. The biggest one for us was supermarkets introducing item limits. Our twins were consuming 4 tins of formula per week between them, but we were only allowed to buy 3 tins at a time and I was very worried about being able to feed them. I offered to show the supermarkets the birth certificates which proved I had twins, but they didn't care. I contacted the Twins Trust charity about it and they wrote to all the major supermarkets, but still nothing changed. Hopefully item limits are now a thing of the past anyway, but who knows what the future holds - if such a situation arises again, it's so important that parents of multiples are able to feed their babies just as easily as anyone else.

Just to add - I paid privately for the DNA test, it's not offered on the NHS. There are so many parents in my local twins group who mistakenly believed their identical twins were non-identical for the first 1001 days (and beyond)!

This is not quite early years as it’s from age 3, but I find the current ‘birthday lottery’ for free childcare hours really unfair and difficult for families. Effectively a child born on 1st April misses out on 5 months free childcare than a child born on 31st March. To me that is crazy and should be changed! Especially when the income of the family with the child born on 31st March might be drastically higher than the April family. As a part time student and mum who receives no benefits whatsoever from the government I have struggled immensely because of this policy. Why can’t childcare places work as per pensions? Ie you get it once you turn 3, not the term after. It requires only minimal administrative changes and is clearly only a way to make savings (unfairly)

Hello all - thanks so much for all your thoughts so far, it's been really fascinating to read.

Andrea will be coming back on to the thread at 5pm today if you want to chat to her live.

Thanks
MNHQ

Hi Andrea thanks for coming on to listen and for such considered follow up questions.
I wanted to highlight two things that really made a difference to me in the first 1001 days:
What went well - my area's health visitors ran an 'early days' baby course at the local medical centre. For six weeks, every week, from when my son was a month old I met the same group of mums and got chance to get advice from health visitors. Three years on those 8 mums are all still my friends and have been a massive source of support. I dont know how I would have managed without them. That course played such a big part in my early experience as a mum and was only an hour a week but so valuable.
What didn't go well - I had a very traumatic emergency delivery with complications affecting me for several months afterwards . After a year I was diagnosed as having birth trauma PTSD when I began having panic attacks. Mental health aspects of my delivery and birth trauma were never discussed while I was in hospital or at midwife checks afterwards. I only learned about birth trauma from Mumsnet and sought help myself. I think the mental health impact on mums from complicated deliveries and complications is often brushed aside as 'well the baby is healthy so its all worth it'. However I was really struggling but because noone asked I thought I just had to hide it and get on with things.
Hope this is useful.

@ReallySpicyCurry

Thirteen years ago, when I had my first, I saw an NHS lactation consultant on day 3 in hospital. I didn't particularly enjoy my stay in hospital, but the atmosphere was reasonably calm and although there was not enough support from midwives (more a problem with the midwives themselves rather than the staffing to be fair) things ran smoothly enough and visiting times were adhered to strictly.

I had a phone call with a breastfeeding peer supporter on day 6 when I came home. The local SureStart ran parenting courses, cookery courses, sleep clinics, baby yoga and massage, exercise classes, and half a dozen different playgroups,as well as subsidised days out to places like the zoo. I live rurally, and they operated a sort of satellite system around the villages.

When I had my second, two years ago, there was no lactation consultant, no peer supporter, the postnatal ward was crazy, and anyone's bloke seemed to feel free to wander about from 7am to 11pm, and when I brought my baby home, I found out that SureStart offer a fraction of what they did a decade ago.

So yes - bring back SureStart. Even ore covid I've found it a lot harder to meet with other parents this time round, unless I pay £££ and drive miles to do specialist baby and toddler activities. There are the usual church hall playgroups, but increasingly they're struggling as they don't have the volunteer pool anymore, everyone is going back to work and little old church ladies aren't as thick on the ground - they're probably still working too! I would say SureStart is more necessary now than it ever was. The UK frankly has a fairly horrible track record when it comes to children's mental health and happiness, and I feel that because SureStart didn't automatically fix every problem parent or family, it was consigned to the dustbin, when in fact the first SureStart babies are only really hitting adulthood now, and it's one of those services where the benefits can't always be measured or seen the way a GCSE certificate can- we need to get out of the way of thinking that rewards have to be visible and immediate

I couldn't agree more with the posters advocating proper, science based, realistic breastfeeding advice. I say that as someone who has successfully fed two children into toddlerhood. There is so much basic knowledge lacking, it's really shameful actually,because it's the sort of thing that any mum on a Facebook parenting group with six months of feeding under her belt will know due to trial and error. There's no reason why the same knowledge can't be given to mothers during pregnancy, by someone who is well educated on the subject and has no drum to beat. Feeding an infant shouldn't be the stressful journey it currently is for so many mothers, regardless of what their choices and preferences are.

The other thing I would like to see is more guidance around screens for babies and toddlers. In the last decade since I've had a toddler, tablet use in very small children has boomed. Every day there is someone on my local parenting facebook group looking for a recommendation for a tablet to buy for their child's first or second birthday/Christmas. My gut instinct, as someone who has worked with young children, is that too much use of these screens at a young age is not good for a whole lot of reasons, ranging from the lack of physical activity to the impact on concentration levels. I feel this needs looked at in greater detail.

Also what on earth is going on with health visitors? They're either really brilliant or stunningly useless. There's no in between.

That's it, I think!

@ReallySpicyCurry Thank you very much for all your thoughts. Can you explain how the satellites worked? The Review Team have just had a really good discussion with Children’s Centres in Devon, who do a lot of satellite work, and it would be so helpful to compare. What do you think worked well? Should they have events/drop ins etc, or focus on information, or professional services? Thanks again

@raising2children

my boy had severe reflux and dairy intolerant but wasn't diagnosed until he was 9 months after a trip to A+E. The NHS staff were incredible. in his first 9 months he refused tummy time, had horrific eczema and was underweight. This meant he didn't walk or jump until he was much older. If it wasn't for the NHS peaditric dietician, I think we would have had all sorts of food issues too. First 1001 days are critical which means every day counts. If I was listened to earlier and staff were trained to see the signs of reflux, we could have had less sleepless nights, less eczema and potentially development stages met.

Professionally I train foster carers in attachment, child development, trauma informed and behaviour support. As a parent I wasn't informed of attachment parenting, empathic parenting or research on brain development and behaviour support strategies. In fact parents/families are only offered evidence based advice when they are struggling and accessing Early Help. We can support the early intervention strategy far better by highlighting the research on parenting in preparation of becoming a parent e.g. when pregnant. I even created my own blog to share evidence based research to parents because I couldn't find anything. raising2children.com.

Many of my friends who are parents don't know how playing and interacting with their baby supports attachment - which fundamentally impacts how you behave throughout childhood and into adulthood.

Many parents have not heard of EYFS. I couldn't find a guide that broke down each criterion so I knew what to encourage at home. I ended up making a guide myself!!!

1001 critical days is a great document. Do parents know it exists? Where are the practical ideas for professionals and parents to make a piece of paper a reality.

I think parents would be open to watching short films exploring brain development, attachment and behaviour support- siren films have great clips.

My stance is: early support (through evidence based info/advice) can even reduce early 'intervention'. This in turn, can minimise the impact of trauma and insecure attachment. We want to create a secure baby > child > adolescent > adult, benefitting the individual, family, community and country. It is far cheaper to not have the issues in the first place.

Thank you for asking for our feedback. I appreciate the opportunity to offer my opinions.

@raising2children. Really interesting to hear your experience - we’ve had a lot of feedback from parents saying they would like to get much more information about early development/health in order to be able to access the help they need for their baby. How do you think this could be done better? Should it be via Health Visitor, through NHS website, or maybe through an app? Or leaflets at the GP or children’s centre?

@timestep

Couldn't agree more with *@hvnamechange2000*. My HV contact consisted of immediately after birth and then at 6 weeks. Otherwise nothing. Nursery forms always asked for "named health visitor" but I didn't have one. I was discharged ASAP even though I had ongoing issues with feeding and my son's tongue tie. Any support involved me going to weigh ins run out of sure start centres to get help, or going to the breastfeeding cafe. All of these have now closed in my area and are only operated on a referral basis. This is devestating. I'm concerned about how many families are out there who won't be seeking help to get a referral, and how many safeguarding concerns will easily fall through gaps.

@timestep. Really sorry to hear how little support you received, and thank you for sharing this. What would you think about the idea of having a ‘key worker’ for each new parent - someone who would be the key point of contact for all issues/concerns during the conception to age two period? If you approve, who do you think it should be? The Health Visitor? Or another person?

@AndreaLeadsomMP
@timestep 's experience is what the vast majority of parents are receiving.

A new birth visit and a 6-8 week visit. No maybe she shouldn't have been discharged with no follow up but that's not uncommon.

There is no antenatal contact in most areas now, and the 9-13 month and 2 year contacts are done by nursery nurses.

Are you aware of this?

@AndreaLeadsomMP

The main centre was a larger converted old shop/townhouse in one of the villages - not the biggest or otherwise most well equipped village, but central in that you could get a direct business to it from more or less anywhere else in the area. This centre had maybe half a dozen rooms and a kitchen, and two small halls which could be hired out to other community groups in the evening and on weekends. They had a 2 years plus nursery programme here, the usual rounds of baby yoga, cookery classes, and general stay-and-play toddler groups. Some of these were permanent (the nursery and stay and play) while things like the baby yoga and cookery classes worked on rotation- six weeks at main centre in village A, six weeks in the church hall in Village B, then six weeks at the back of the health clinic at village C. That sort of thing. People then had the option of going to the classes at their own village, but as time went on parents would make friends, grow in confidence, and often travel to the next village to continue with the class, or attend the permanent toddler groups at the main hub.

As a young single mother who didn't drive, I found it a very accessible service, despite living in such a geographically awkward and remote rural area. I am in fact still friends with many of the people I met there.

Not only that, but the parenting and cookery courses were rotated through the villages too, and I don't know if it was just my area, but the parenting courses in particular were handled with delicacy - tea, cake and sandwiches were provided, on one memorable occasion a local takeaway did pizza, and the uptake was very good and people from a range of backgrounds attended. It was framed as "an evening for parents" rather than some sort of prescriptive "come and learn how not to thump your child"

We also had regular subsidised trips out during the holidays, which were a great way to keep in touch outside of term time.

My circumstances currently have changed drastically compared to when I had my eldest, however although I am now married, employed, and a homeowner with more disposable income, I feel that my toddler is at a disadvantage socially compared to my experience with my eldest. Even pre covid I was driving for miles out of area, to attend £8 a session toddler groups, because apart from the local church playgroup, most of the groups I went to a decade ago no longer exist. I am in a position to access these groups, but it's extremely difficult for those who aren't.

I think what worked well in my area too was that there was no sense that sure start was for any particular group. It really was accessible to everyone, probably because when you live miles from everywhere and all you have to look at are fields you're desperate for any sort of company, especially as a new mother

I also think the satellite system contributed to a feeling of community in the children themselves. Instead of being confined to their villages, they "know" the other villages, and each other, in a way that I don't remember having as a teen growing up in the same area. They all continued to see each other at school quizzes, scout groups etc, and now have each other on social media. I had to move my eldest to another village school aged about 7,and it was incredibly smooth transition, due in large part to the fact she still knew/recognised certain children, and I knew and recognised their parents

@AndreaLeadsomMP @hvnamechange2000

As HV has said, I didn't have a unique experience. It was the same for most of my friends in this area. I know it just down to not enough HVs. I feel so fortunate to have got support elsewhere but am concerned for new families when this support has now closed and there continues to be a lack of HVs.

I am not sure if a keyworker would be needed unless longer term consistent support is needed. I just think more staff, more time to follow up concerns, signposting to support, and re-opening drop ins is needed.

When I was pregnant I was ready to learn anything I could as part of my preparation. NHS offered breast feeding classes and preparing for birth class which were useful and I think some parents use NHS website so that would be a good place. I think one size doesn’t fit all so a menu of resources would be good. A couple of short films about attachment or signposting to Youtube clips for those parents who are interested e.g.empathy,window of tolerance, andhow brain are built(I love this one) and goes all the way up toadolescentswhich many parents struggle with (just look at Early Help, MST and Foster Care data.) An app would be great for those parents who have access to the internet and have smartphones. It could support child development [physical, cognitive, emotional, social and pro-social domains], EYFS, speech and language to name a few. It should based on evidence-based research as this allows parents to decide how to use the info and what bits are best for their family. Health Visitors, midwives, children centres, family support workers and Early Help could have the same app/films so they can show parents. I could go on…..

@Hardbackwriter

Professionally I train foster carers in attachment, child development, trauma informed and behaviour support. As a parent I wasn't informed of attachment parenting, empathic parenting or research on brain development and behaviour support strategies. In fact parents/families are only offered evidence based advice when they are struggling and accessing Early Help. We can support the early intervention strategy far better by highlighting the research on parenting in preparation of becoming a parent e.g. when pregnant. I even created my own blog to share evidence based research to parents because I couldn't find anything. https://raising2children.com.

Many of my friends who are parents don't know how playing and interacting with their baby supports attachment - which fundamentally impacts how you behave throughout childhood and into adulthood.

I think if you're going to do this you have to be incredibly careful about how. I actually posted on another thread about my experience of going to a postnatal group at my local children's centre, which was sort of loosely aimed at women who were a bit anxious or isolated - which was generally a godsend, by the way, I'm so grateful it was running; it was part of a service that was pretty stripped back then and now is essentially non-existent. The group leader gave a presentation on the impact of early parenting, complete with slides of shrunken brains from infants who weren't interacted with 'enough' (which meant who were severely neglected, but she didn't say that) - and I watched as a room full of women who had been interacting naturally with their babies suddenly became stilted and began to make a conscious effort to do interaction 'right'. It probably wasn't the right place for that message, and it certainly wasn't the right way to do it. From what I see there are actually a lot more mothers who need to be told that good enough is good enough than who need to be told to make more effort with their babies - and does something like that really reach the latter? Do your friends really not play and interact with their children because they don't know attachment theory - and, if not, do you think a short video on it would really change that?

Hi sorry I may not have explained myself enough. My friends play with their children all the time. They don't about attachment parenting. It's the simple techniques you can add sometimes when you they can to playing to increase attunement opportunities e.g. full attention when playing with serve and return - eye contact and facial expression. (not being on your phone at the same time). emotional regualtion by ensuring child feels (childs perception) safe, comfort, proxmity and predictability. I agree this needs to be considered how the message is delivered in a positive way. Each parent uses their own techniques for their family is very important. I think a little evidence-base research also can ease a parents worries.

Really sorry to hear how little support you received, and thank you for sharing this. What would you think about the idea of having a ‘key worker’ for each new parent - someone who would be the key point of contact for all issues/concerns during the conception to age two period? If you approve, who do you think it should be? The Health Visitor? Or another person?

@AndreaLeadsomMP

Early Support was a great system for families with a child, or children with SEND. The whole system was based around the family having a Key Worker. However, it had a really tiny % of the success it should have had due to the fact it was declared that 'the family can choose who they would like to be their Key Worker' but then no money was produced to actually employ anyone. So SENCos (overwhelmingly) but occasionally FSWs or HVs were then presumed to be able to take on this really crucial role in "spare time", which of course, no-one had.
This was just for the small % of families that have children with complex and significant needs - possibly around 2% of the population. Yet no Gvmnt would fund enough Key Workers for that scheme to work.
Realistically, do you think you are ever going to persuade the Treasury (of any Government ever, not just a Conservative one who don't like to fund anything much from the public purse, even before this Pandemic has brought the economy crashing down, after the last 10 years of austerity has already pared everything back to the bone) to fund enough Key Workers for ALL children ?

Or is it another scheme where a Government announces they are going to 'provide' something without actually funding it - just asking a service such as HV, who are already on their knees, to take on an extra hat to wear ?

Andrea,
I realise I keep jumping on this thread, but you did open this up to professionals as well as parents and as it happens I have a lot to say.

Just in response to your reply to a parent on here about 1 'key person' from conception to age 2.

I feel like I've read something that an alien has written. Health visitors work with parents antenatally until their child is aged 5? A named health visitor is already exactly what you've just described...

We get these 'ideas' / changes in practice that as professionals we're expected to jump into with both feet. They last a year or so and inevitably it fizzle out and everything goes back to normal except we're all just even more deflated and tired by it all. The answer is so, so clear. We need more health visitors.

I feel really frustrated after reading that. I don't want to seem like I'm not willing to be positive and progressive but we need to stop trying to continually reinvent the wheel here. Just give us more staff so we can do our role properly!!

I appreciate you are trying to help matters, please speak to professions! I feel like I want to just speak to you and explain how it actually is! Nobody understands! It's a very frustrating position to be in, people making decisions about a service they have no idea about. Speak to the people on the ground.

@AndreaLeadsomMP from the initial scan discovering I was having triplets there was very little information available on triplet pregnancy and birth. There is tons on line about twins but that's not applicable. The best support I've had is from triplet mums. Maybe a peer support group? I spent my entire pregnancy thinking that either I was going to die or the babies were. Beyond the very medical focused consultant there was no one I could turn to to ask these questions.

During my stay in hospital after the birth (snd also before they were born) no one asked me about breastfeeding or showed me. I had to approach them myself by seeking them out. Even then the advice was poor. With the help and persistence of my sister I managed to pump for almost six months but that very nearly wasn't a option for me.

Realistic advice from the health visitor, that is importantly applicable to triplets. Suggesting I take 3 x 1 year olds out on reigns by myself wasn't met with the best response!

In summary

• mental preparation for triplets ( or higher order multiples)
• breastfeeding support before they're born, and after.
• peer support from triplet mums
• HV advice that takes account of the practical reality of having triplets on a day to day basis.

100% what @hvnamechange2000 has said.

(I'm not a HV btw). I do, however come into contact with HVs though my work with 0-5s.

When I had my dc (eldest is 24) you did have a named HV. But now there aren't nearly enough of them. Plus, all the other services that supported them and worked around them - mainly Children's Centres, but also Portage workers, Inclusion Officers, Area SENCos, Early Years Advisory Teachers, SaLTs, FSWs, Social Workers, the Child Development Centres, CAMHS, and even GPs and Practice Nurses are all overwhelmed and on their knees, so the (reduced number of) HVs are doing the work that used to be done by much bigger teams, without the support they used to get from having other Teams around them.
The Public purse spends so much time reinventing the wheel and wasting money on changes and setting up new systems, without ever talking to anyone who works on the frontline about what is needed.

I agree with bringing back SureStart centres. We had a lovely one in my town, which I first visited when I was pregnant. It had welcoming, supportive staff, good facilities, and a great programme of classes and activities. I remember attending a class about weaning, which was really helpful. Sadly, the centre closed not long afterwards. Why did the government do this?

And yes, please increase the funding for postnatal care. The staff on my postnatal ward were very overstretched. I lost count of the number of times a member of staff rushed off to fetch something for me and never came back! Also, the patients didn’t have much privacy or peace.

I agree with the PPs that breastfeeding support is so important and the surestart initiative should be reinstated it was such an important service. The health visitors also seem to have been cut back and they are so important providing the link between health services and the home.

On the subject of HVs, mine was kind and supportive, and I got to know her quite well. I used to text her occasionally with minor questions. However, when my daughter was one, several of the HVs, including mine, got moved to another area (no idea why).

We were assigned another HV, but I’ve never met her. A different person carried out my daughter’s 2 year check (over the phone due to Covid), so I don’t really have a single point of contact any more.

Re: tongue tie, my son's was spotted but the HV and Doctors near me wouldn't snip it. I have to go to the gp, get a referral to a hospital 45mins drive away, wait 3 weeks, get my insurance to sign me off to drive early after a c-section, then drag an autistic toddler with me.

Once I saw it done I think if there was a next time I would just do it myself - it's a doddle!

My main important point - my HV was the single most important person when it came to getting an early diagnosis for my middle child. She was brilliant and I think the HV role is absolutely crucial.

I rang HV when ds was 15months. He wasn't developing in the way I would have expected. HV did a home observation and referred ds to the Child Development Centre for a developmental check and pre-autism assessment, a hearing test and speech therapy.

He got his ASD diagnosis at 2.5yrs, EHCP at 3yrs and was able to start special school just after his 4th birthday.

This was all thanks to this wonderful HV.

Ironically I saw the GP once ds has been referred on another unrelated matter and she saw the referrals on the system and told me that there was nothing wrong with ds.

More than anything else we tried and did, those early referrals and being listened by our HV made the difference between sinking and swimming.

Breastfeeding - support it properly or stop pushing the agenda. When my mum had me she was kept in hospital for a week and "taught" how to feed and care for a baby. I was pushed out a day after a 50 hour labour.I had no clue what I was doing, a midwife home visit on day 4 realised my baby was dehydrating and had to be readmitted for specialist care. Thus we probably ended up costing the NHS more than had we been supported properly in the first place. We cannot expect women to go through exhausting labours, tears, caesareans etc and just leave hospital and be able to care for a baby straight away. People don't have the family support they used to.

Secondly - please ensure the women whose partners cannot attend scans etc right now are supported and this situation ends. Imagine finding out your baby has died and your partner isn't allowed in? Horrendous.