Birthrights alongside Pregnant then Screwed, Make Birth Better, Birth Bliss Academy, the Fatherhood Institute and AIMS have today urged NHSE to issue clearer guidance to Trusts about the need to remove visiting restrictions for companions of choice in maternity services.
The letter follows news at the weekend that Liverpool Womens NHS Foundation Trust was reinstating restrictions it had previously removed in response to rising coronavirus cases. Birthrights has made a request under the Freedom of Information Act to see the risk assessment and any minutes of discussions of the risk assessment that led to all visiting being suspended in antenatal/postnatal wards. The group of organisations who wrote to NHSE are keen that lessons are learnt from the past six months and that Trusts recognise the need for families to be together at this significant time in their lives.