'Women Will Not Be Forced to Be Alone When They Are Giving Birth' [View all]

[Crunchy Frog]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/parenting/nyc-coronavirus-hospitals-visitors-labor.html

In response to some private hospitals’ decision to bar partners, New York will order all hospitals to allow partners in delivery rooms, despite the coronavirus risk.

Melissa DeRosa, the secretary to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, announced that an executive order would be issued that required all hospitals in New York, both public and private, to allow women to have a partner in the labor and delivery room — in compliance with the latest guidance from the New York State Department of Health.

The order, which the governor released Saturday night, is a response to a decision earlier this week by two major New York City hospital systems, NewYork-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai, to ban support people from labor and delivery rooms because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This is a very sound decision IMO. Apparently panicked pregnant women were preparing to stampede to other states to give birth, or even hastily deciding on poorly planned home births.