While giving birth under normal circumstances already comes with its fair share of uncertainty, bringing a child onto the Earth during a worldwide pandemic poses altogether new challenges. Thankfully, Interior Health has labelled doulas as essential workers, allowing them to accompany women in birthing rooms.
According to Rachel Cline, owner of Mother Nurture Doulas, a doula is a non medical birth companion who enhances the role of the birth partner, but does not replace doctors or midwives. Doulas educate parents and ease the anxiety associated with pregnancy, working with couples throughout the entire birthing journey from preconception, to pregnancy, birthing, and postpartum. Cline stated that doulas are proven to decrease many interventions for women, including a lessened need for epidurals, a lowered chance of C sections, and an increased opportunity for successful breastfeeding.
The support they offer makes their role all the more integral, as the COVID-19 situation has raised anxiety in soon to be mothers. Many parents have fears associated to how their pregnancy, birth, or postpartum will look due to the imposed restrictions. Some hesitations revolve around not being able to have family members from abroad assist with the baby during early stages. Other mothers and fathers have expressed concern over the lack of programming for their toddlers while they are expecting another baby. Cline has seen a spike in clients reaching out for support and questions, as the services of a doula can greatly ease such anxieties.
“Now is the ideal time to have a virtual doula, because we are a birth coach and can give so much support. We all have really great counselling skills. To be able to have someone that you can off load anxieties to because you can’t go into the doctor’s office is so important for women’s mental health,” said Cline.
On top of doula services, Cline also reminds new parents how important peer support networks are, and encourages them to connect with friends and family via Skype or Zoom whenever possible.
Thankfully, Interior Health has been extremely supportive to new parents, however in many other locations the same cannot be said.
“In New York, doulas are not allowed in the birthing room, and at one point even birth partners weren’t allowed, so women were having to labour on their own. That is happening in some parts of Canada still,” said Cline. “There was a really shocking thing that happened in Ontario where they were insisting that any women that came in had to have an epidural put in, because it was taking too long to get the personal protective equipment on and off between patients if they needed to go into surgery. Due to lots of women writing in and complaining about that being a breach of their human rights, they’ve withdrawn that policy.”
According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) website, all pregnant women, regardless of acquiring the virus, have the right to high quality care during every stage of pregnancy and birth. The WHO’s website also states that it is still unknown if women who are pregnant and have COVID-19 can transfer the virus to the baby during pregnancy or delivery. The virus has, however not been detected in breastmilk or amniotic fluid. As a result, the WHO assures that those with COVID-19 can still hold their babies and breastfeed, as skin to skin and breastfeeding help babies thrive. According to Cline, breastfeeding is even said to reduce the chances of newborns contracting viruses.
This being said, Cline states that patients are being discharged from hospitals quicker than usual. The majority of medical visits are also being done over the phone, therefore not as many blood pressure checks, urine drop tests, and the like are carried out. Rather, physicians are trying to administer all essential face to face medical procedures in one session, while switching what they can to telehealth. At the moment, partners are not allowed to attend ultrasound appointments with the mother.
Though there has not been a significant alteration in workload, Cline states that COVID-19 has pushed changes in the way Mother Nurture Doulas carries out their services. They have switched to conducting their appointments and interviews via Zoom, while limiting in person care. According to Cline, though it is not more dangerous to be giving birth in hospitals, all medical staff, including doulas are to be clad in PPE in birthing rooms, and avoid contact whenever possible.
These changes, alongside the apparent push for staying home, raise questions pertaining to the preference of at home births.
“There is definitely more talk of at home births but not locally, because the doctors in town are supporting women really well. They are carrying out a lot of their support over teleconferencing. But their care has not changed dramatically, they are still able to offer everything in Fernie that they were offering before. The women I have talked to have been really happy with the care that they have been getting, they feel that the doctors have really been able to support them,” said Cline.
Though there are apparent adjustments and struggles due to new restrictions, Cline said some new mothers have talked about positives that are coming out of this experience. For instance, many mothers have been able to have the support of their partner around for longer due to the temporary layoffs. Thankfully, essential baby items such as formula have also not sold out in the Elk Valley, and Elkford’s emergency room closure has not affected births as women typically go in to Fernie’s Elk Valley Hospital to give birth, therefore easing the stress of many new parents.
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