Designated birth partners now allowed to be present during hospital appointments

Hywel Dda University Health Board is pleased to share that from Wednesday 1 June, changes are being made to maternity inpatient visiting rules, enabling a designated birth partner to be present during hospital appointments.

The changes announced today will enable one designated birth partner to visit women and birthing people who are admitted to hospital during pregnancy, induction of labour, and following birth, from 10am to 8:30pm each day.

A designated partner can be in attendance when a mother or birthing person is admitted in labour to the Maternity Triage Unit or the Midwifery-led Units at Withybush Hospital and Glangwili Hospital.
One designated partner can continue to attend throughout labour and elective caesarean section.

One designated partner can also attend for all obstetric scans and growth scans in addition to the 12 and 20 week scans. Depending on clinical capacity on the day, partners may be required to remain outside of the antenatal clinic and called for when their partners go into the appointment.

These changes are brought into immediate effect at Gwenllian Ward, Bronglais Hospital; Dinefwr Ward, Glangwili Hospital; and the Midwifery-led Unit at Withybush Hospital.

Mandy Rayani, Director of Nursing, Quality and Patient Experience, said: “The pandemic has been an incredibly challenging time for our expectant parents and their support networks. Needing to limit the visiting of birthing partners for maternity appointments and during childbirth has been incredibly difficult but has been a necessary step to ensure patient safety.

“As the pandemic eases, we are pleased that we are now in a position to review our visiting guidance and enable a designated birthing partner to be present for these important moments during pregnancy and after birth. Our midwifery teams will continue to monitor the situation and may need to amend local visiting should there be any incidents of COVID-19 on the wards, but we hope that this is a positive step forward that brings a sense of normalcy to the experience of our new parents.”

Hywel Dda University Health Board is reviewing its wider visiting guidance and any local changes will be communicated widely next week. In the meantime, people are asked to continue following the health board guidance currently in place.