Face masks during labour

[MrsRose2018]

Hi

I have just been at my hospital for my usual twice weekly monitoring and a new policy for MY hospital (I’m aware others have had it for a while) has just come in making face masks mandatory for everyone - all staff, patients, partners etc.

I asked My midwife whether this will be required during labour and I was told “they don’t know” because the policies are changing so frequently with no consultation! They didn’t even know they had to challenge people not wearing them till this morning!

She assumes that birth partners will have to wear them constantly for the duration of their visit but said it “seems unlikely” for the mothers in ACTIVE labour as they need to regulate their breathing and get to the gas and air etc but she just can’t say...

I’ll hold my hands up and admit that I’m an absolute wimp and whilst I understand this is for the greater good and safety of others wearing a mask really distresses me! It gets me hot and flustered and itchy and I just don’t manage well! I’m also being induced in 12 days and very anxious at the prospect of wearing one for days on end!

Does anyone have any experience of the face masks? Any advice or positive stories? I’m a bag oh hormones today and this is just the final straw for me..

X

At our two local hospitals the procedure is that the labouring mother doesn’t have to wear them, as midwives are in PPE.

At my hospital, policy is to wear them for all appointments. However, when being induced or in labour, the mother doesn't wear one (though the birth partner does have to, until you move to the individual rooms on the delivery suite at which point the birth partner can also remove theirs). Midwives will be in masks the whole time

At mine, labouring women are classes as inpatients and dont have to wear them. Visitors do have to wear them

This is really reassuring thank you!

I know It differs from Trust to Trust but hopefully it will be similar at mine!

I think this just hit my hormones weird today and was the last straw after having my waters break prematurely, being told I had to be consulted led and having to have an induction!

I was literally sat strapped to my CTG monitoring balling at my midwife that I "couldn't do this" 😂🤦‍♀️

Labouring women currently do not have to wear masks, they may try and change that. Remember that no-one can FORCE you to wear a mask however and while they can refuse you access for a routine appointment they can’t deny you care when you are in labour so IF the government try and be completely stupid and push this you are well within your rights to decline.

I’m getting a bit hacked off with this.

I’m a HCP. I put my life on the line in shoddy PPE to protect and care for the public in the early stages. I got Covid.

Then we got better PPE that protects me but gives me hideaous pressure sores. In the course of my job I have to wear this for 4-5hrs at a time. I can’t drink at all during tat time.

And yet patients are coming up with every excuse under the fucking sun to not wear lightweight surgical face masks to protect me and other staff.

Quite honestly I’m at the point (as are many of my collesgues) that if you don’t want to comply with that then I don’t want to treat you.

Breakdown in doctor-patient relationship. Respect cuts both ways.

@johnstonfront

Have you ever given birth?

I had a planned c section and had to wear a mask in theatre, as did DH. They did say I could take it off though as I was struggling to breathe and feeling dizzy through my blood pressure dropping.

@MrsRose2018

Our trust has just posted clarification that labouring women aren't required to wear facemasks.

@johnstonfont I have seen many of the comments you are referring to, but personally don’t believe this is a great example. There is zero chance a labouring mother can go through the process wearing a mask. I will wear a mask all day everyday to protect others, but not during labour. Just not happening. I think the OP is only talking labour and not her appointments etc

So I’m a midwife and I believe most trusts
Will be adopting the policy of all outpatients (including women in triage/clinic/scans/day assessment) where masks to protect the staff and other women/patients. All visitors including birth partners will wear a mask at all times. An inpatient doesn’t require a mask on at any stage, unless in theatre where everyone is treated as covid positive in many units.

I had a c section the day after lockdown - didn't have to wear a mask, neither did DH. So glad we had the baby before all the madness. It should be common bloody sense that a labouring woman cannot wear a mask (and I'm all for them otherwise!).

I was in for growth scan/monitoring today and wore a mask as the requirement came in today.

I wanted to ask about in labour but to be honest there was that much else going on with my appointment I forgot.

I won’t be wearing a mask in labour. I’d give birth in the car park first. I’m fucking terrified thanks to my own birth mother dying in childbirth and previous trauma connected to the hospital where I’ll be giving birth. I’m working incredibly hard to get past my fears so I can have as calm a birth as possible but I’m afraid having to wear a mask is too far for me. I need to be able to do the breathing techniques I’ve learned and to access the gas and air. I’m sorry if that makes me a terrible patient or makes me ungrateful to the nhs or to hcps- I’m really not but I cannot wear a mask in labour.

@johnstonfont a bit different for a women in labour though?! How on earth is a women supposed to labour with a face mask on? She needs access to gas and air if she chooses this method of pain relief, to regulate her breathing etc. I think your outburst is on the wrong thread personally (but you do have a point about people needing to be willing to protect themselves AND others)

I will refuse to wear a facemask in labour and would love to see the evidence base for it. This is getting ridiculous. Hope the crazy passes by October!

Currently at the trust I work in mothers aren't wearing then during labour. I don't see how they can expect you to either.
I have to wear one 8 hours a day and it's suffocating so cannot imagine wearing one during labour!

@johnstonfont we are talking about labouring women here.
Not coming in for an appointment, actually in the throes of labour. It is absurd to expect a woman in labour to wear a mask.

My hospitals policy is you have to wear a face covering for appointments which I am of course happy to do so but at the moment labouring mums are the exception to the rule and don't have to use them.
I'm asthmatic so no idea how i'd manage breathing through labour in a mask for hours on end.

My trust have said you don't have to wear one in labour, or on the ward when in your own space, but you do have to wear one when going to any areas outside the ward or labour room. Birth partners have to wear one when in the presence of midwife etc. but not when your alone. If this changes to women having to wear a mask in labour I will just refuse, there is no way I'm wearing one during it and pretty sure they can't force it on you.

@johnstonfont I'm pretty sure you having to wear a mask 4-5 hours at a time for your job is not the same as having to wear one during labour, which can take many more hours and you need to be able to access gas and air, drink and be able to breathe freely. I can understand your point for general appointments and visitors, but it's a completely different matter for labour. You don't sound very considerate for a HCP to be honest!

I was in A&E then maternity triage recently for 5 hours and wore a mask as instructed throughout. It was unbearable, I just wanted to rip it off my face the whole time. I'm softly spoken and had to keep repeating myself as the doctors couldn't hear me properly. I was feeling quite stoic about the whole no birth partner throughout, and no support from partner on the ward but the mask thing has absolutely broken me, and I'm now fucking terrified of the whole thing. I totally agree with wearing them for appointments and it's right that we protect HCP as much as we can but given in my trust we're also asked to isolate for 14 days pre due date and be tested on admittance, I feel any move to make masks compulsory in labour has to be backed up by some actual risk assessment and not just a blanket rule which wasn't in place at the height of the pandemic either

I could barely keep my clothes on in labour so rather doubt I'd keep a mask on.

Gas and air was my saviour too...

They can’t actually force a mask on you whatever policy says.
If you are in the middle of labour and take it off they are hardly going to pin you down and force it back on nor will they throw you out on to the street or refuse to treat you.
I can’t see any way this is enforceable in active labour.

For appointments sure, it should be insisted on. But once you are admitted there’s no chance.

I know several people that had babies in lockdown, none wore masks. Don’t stress, honestly.

@johnstonfront I think my post was fairly reasonable?

I never said I would refuse, I never said my partner would refuse I simply said, and elaborated in my further comment, that I'm reaching the end of my tether.

This is my first baby and I'm tired, im scared, I'm hormonal and I think I've had a pretty tough ride of things considering my waters broke at 25 weeks and I've had to deal with the prospect of delivering a very sick baby at any moment.

Just because someone feels it worse doesn't mean that another person isn't allowed to feel it in the first place.

I've been in the hospital twice a week every week for 12 weeks for PROM management and have happily worn my PPE where required but just because you have to wear it all time I'm not allowed to lose my cool over the thought of possibly having to wear it to give birth?

I would have thought your would have more empathy than most! You have pressure sores, you have to wear it for 4-5 hours at a time. And how does that make you feel? Do you feel comfortable? Calm? Relaxed? Do you feel like it would encourage you to push and sweat and get in the zone to labour for however many days it took?

You're a HCP so thank you for putting yourself on the line during this but attitudes like yours break down the doctor patient relationship, not a scared FTM looking for some advice and support

@Mummyme87 thank you! That's a really helpful insight!

@islandislandisland that was pretty much what I was getting at! I've come to terms with my husband not being at scans. I've come to terms with being on my own with no visitors for 72 hours after my waters broke and they observed me in hospital. I've come to terms that my husband can't be with me till active labour and has to leave after the baby arrives. But this was my last straw..

I'm a control freak in my daily life and I have had absolutely no control over anything since my waters broke and now the face masks... pregnancy is scary and uncomfortable enough without the added discomfort 🤷‍♀️

The (helpful) posts from others is really reassuring though at the very least x