As you prepare to give birth during this time, information regarding the safety and availability of your birth environment may impact your decision-making process and what you express to your provider that you need.

Call your birth place and provider immediately to express your concerns and ask all your questions.

 

Through this process ask yourself:

Do the answers align? Do you feel comfortable with the answers?

Provide the people you talk to with your feedback and concerns.

 

The following is a list of questions that other expecting parents have asked (many thanks to doula friend Kathleen Mugnolo for taking the lead in creating this!).

• What is your plan for laboring people for when/if the number of COVID patients surpasses what is available in the hospital?
• Can you assure me that there will be no COVID-19 confirmed or suspected patient cases on the same floor/ward as me and my baby?
• Can you assure me that COVID patients will not be anywhere near me or my baby?
• What is the plan for a laboring person that tests positive for COVID during labor? During postpartum? Are you separating birthing parents from their babies?
• How many support people can I have? Does it have to be the same people the whole time? If they leave, can they come back?
• Will my support people and I need to wear a mask? Any other requirements?
• Will we be on lock-down in our room?
• When will I be asked to consider an induction?
• I want to go into labor on my own. At what point will my care provider no longer manage my care?
• What tools and comforts will be available to me?
• Have my pain management options changed?
• Who does the cleaning? How often does cleaning take place? Does the janitorial staff wear masks and gloves? How are the rooms disinfected?

Want these questions in an easy-to-print handout? Go ahead and fill this form.