Pandemic putting time constraints on maternal support person following delivery at Thunder Bay hospital

The COVID-19 pandemic is limiting the amount of time a person, be that a spouse, partner, family member or friend can stay with the mother and newborn child at some hospitals in Ontario, including Thunder Bay.

Parents-to-be, who will have their new child delivered at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, will now face a new limit for the individual supporting the mother following childbirth, something that isn't happening at some other hospitals across Ontario contacted by CBC Thunder Bay.

Currently, the hospital in Thunder Bay allows one support person to accompany the pregnant woman into the labour and delivery ward.

Once the birth occurs, the hospital gives that person six hours to stay with the new mother and child before they have to leave.

That change is consistent with Ministry of Health guidelines in response to the pandemic.

"Evidence-based decisions and responses are applied to continuously changing circumstances," a spokesperson for the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre said in an e-mailed statement to CBC News.

"As such, guidelines may be updated from time to time to comply with the best available evidence."

CBC News contacted a dozen of the approximately 100 hospitals across the province providing maternity care, including level one maternal centres in Kenora, Dryden and Sioux Lookout. A level one provides the most basic supports for maternal care.

Level two centres in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Timmins, Guelph, and Kitchener were also contacted.

As well, level three centres in London and Kingston were contacted. That is the highest level of maternal care available in Ontario and can provide the most complex care, if required.

With the exception of Thunder Bay and Timmins, all those other hospitals allowed the support person to stay with the new mother and child for the length of their admission to the hospital.

The typical stay for a new mother and child is 24 hours, said a spokesperson for the Grand River Hospital in Kitchener.

All of the hospitals surveyed allowed only one support person, and all had that person stay on the maternal newborn unit, or in the same room as the mother.

The hospital in Guelph provided a cot for the support person to stay the night, if required.

Following the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is not the only hospital in the province to impose a time restrictionon how long a support person can remain with the mother and newborn, regardless if the new mother and baby were still in hospital.