New York State ordered all hospitals to allow partners in delivery rooms Saturday, bypassing visitation rules enacted by some private hospitals that forced women to go into maternity wards alone.
“In no hospital in New York will a woman be forced to be alone when she gives birth,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted Saturday afternoon. “Not now, not ever.”
, said during his daily briefing that Cuomo would issue an executive order mandating that hospitals allow partners in delivery rooms later Saturday.
New York-Presbyterian hospitals and the Mount Sinai Health System last week banned the partners of expectant moms from accompanying them into the delivery rooms as part of the hospital networks’ efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Women in labor were also required to have a test for the disease and wear a face mask during labor and delivery.
The decision came after the state Department of Health on March 18 advised hospitals to suspend all visitors “except when medically necessary.” The department clarified that the advisory didn’t include maternity wards or pediatric wards on March 21, stating that it required hospitals “to allow one support person in labor and delivery settings if the patient so desires, and two designated support person in pediatric settings, providing that only one person is present at a time.”
Mount Sinai has eight hospitals in the city and on Long Island. New York-Presbyterian has 13 locations in the city and Westchester County.
NYU Langone Health, Northwell Health and city’s Health and Hospitals Corp. all adopted policies with exceptions that allowed visitors for women in labor.