Women in France being forced to wear masks during labour

[Aprild25]

Just saw this. Really gave me the rage.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8834045/amp/Women-France-felt-like-suffocating-forced-wear-face-masks-childbirth.html

Absolutely ridiculous. What if you want the gas and air?

That really makes my blood boil. I can’t imagine hours of labour (days in my case) with a mask on. I was pregnant over the summer and had to wear masks waiting for hours for scans in the boiling hospital - I would’ve passed out if I was in labour.

This was in all the papers in April. Have the Mail only just picked it up?
Tbh, I'd be surprised if they didn't have to wear a mask.

Such a good point-hadn't event thought of that. I was just remembering the utter exhaustion I felt and can't imagine going through that covered in a mask aswell. Seems really barbaric

Insane. How many labouring women have spread the virus???

When you're in labour you exhale that much I doubt a mask does absolutely anything! I had a back to back baby in May and was in absolute agony. There's no way I could have kept a mask on and I had the gas and air in my mouth the whole time anwyay

That's barbaric...how do they have gas and air?
Surely thats pushing the women onto epidurals which carry a risk of leading to complications and pethidine which carries a risk to the baby as it can cause them to be a bit sluggish can't it?

I mean i know they are perfectly valid pain relief choices and each woman should be free to choose but let's not pretend this won't result in more c sections being required and more complications which can be avoided

What are the staff meant to do when instead of 1 or 2 women needing assistance and minimal staff intervention needed with the rest, to suddenly all of them struggling?

I've just had a baby in France and the hospital policy required masks but wasn't enforced when I gave birth, thankfully. An epidural is actually the only pain relief available during labour in France - not even gas and air!

And what exactly are they going to do if a woman in full active labour who can’t be left alone in her pain rips it off and refuses to wear it, they aren’t going to walk out and leave her to push alone!

Stupid bloody rule.

I have a 3 week old. I had to wear a mask when I entered the hospital and until I got on the ward and that was enough. I actually ripped it off in the waiting room (I was 8cm but didn't know that at the time) because it was making it harder to focus on my breathing. There was nobody else in the room but I'm not sure I'd have cared at that point.
I can't believe they're making women labour in a mask. I honestly couldn't have tolerated it.

@Newtothismummingthing

I've just had a baby in France and the hospital policy required masks but wasn't enforced when I gave birth, thankfully. An epidural is actually the only pain relief available during labour in France - not even gas and air!

Congratulations. No gas and air, that's so cruel. I would have ripped the mask off if I had to have one in labour.

Very few countries have gas and air for labouring women.

Very few countries have gas and air for labouring women.

Surely all European countries at least? (I like "labouring", really makes it sound like work.)

They don't have it in Spain or Italy either. I asked my Italian dr friend why once and he thought we were weird for having it. I think they think its dangerous maybe?

"What if you want the gas and air?"

It's not a thing in many countries.

Obviously cross-posted with others on the gas and air.
They don't have it where I am, but they do have physios for the mothers.

No gas and air - just because you are used to it does not make a lack if it cruel. I only know about this from MN and TV-shows and find this slightly strange.

I got my kids at a birth house - no pain relieve whatsoever, my choice.

I saw this today, OP and it made me extremely angry too, for the French women subjected to this level of misogyny.

Apparently French gyms are exempt - labouring women breathe too hard for no mask to be safe, but men on treadmills is dandy.

Pure misogyny.

Gas and air aside, it's still ridiculous to make a woman in labour wear a mask.

My sister gave birth in the US last week. She had to wear a mask throughout. Thankfully it was straightforward and fast, she was induced and had an epidural. Still, awful.

They don't have gas in many countries, it's not available in the us (they did offer to bring some from the dental department when I asked where it was, they said I wasn't the first crazy English woman they had dealt with (didn't actually have pain relief in the end)

I've never had a natural birth , 2 sections, but that is absolutely ludicrous and quite frankly cruel. I respect the rules in hospitals and agree with face coverings throughout but this is ridiculous.

They don't have gas in many countries, it's not available in the us

In the US don't you just have an epidural?

True about Italy, and sometimes there is no epidural either. I foolishly thought I could say "actually, I think I will" at the right moment and the obstetrician said "have you booked one?" I did get one, because I cried and they felt sorry for me...the woman I shared a room with afterwards had just had her fourth baby and didn't know epidurals existed.

My first thoughts were how? So awful how can they breathe? How can they use pain relief?. I wasn’t aware gas and air not available in other countries. Now I wonder if there is much complaint from French women or is it another case like school pupils in masks, all too much for the Brits but not seen as a problem in other countries.