Nearly one in five pregnant women are being forced to wear a face mask during labour, according to research by the charity Pregnant Then Screwed. Some of these women have described the experience as the most terrifying of their lives. They were first seen by their children while masked. For months, a number of hospitals also banned the presence of birth partners for all but the hours of active labour. It is no wonder there was an increase in the number of pregnant women considering freebirth without a medical professional present in 2020. The Guardian has more.
Women described feeling unable to breathe, having panic attacks or even being sick during labour because they were made to wear a face covering [while in labour].
The research was carried out by the charity Pregnant Then Screwed, who surveyed 936 women who gave birth during December. It found that 160 of those who went into labour were made to wear a face covering. This goes against current joint U.K. guidance, published in July 2020 by the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
The guidance says that women should not be asked to wear a face covering of any kind during natural labour or during caesarean births because of the risk of harm and complications. Rosie, 39, from London, said she felt as if she was dying because she was in so much pain during advanced labour with her third child, born in December. Yet maternity staff instructed to keep on her face mask.
She told BBC News: “I was feeling claustrophobic and the mask was making me feel really nauseous and making me panic as well. I’m pushing my baby out, I have this mask on my face, and the feeling of claustrophobia is just massive.”
She said she couldn’t express herself because while struggling to breathe it was hard to talk and staff couldn’t see her whether or not her lips were moving. “I was frightened that amongst everything else that was happening I was then going to be sick inside the mask,” added Rosie, who has a condition called emetophobia, which is a fear of vomiting. At one point she ripped off the mask but was told to put it back on.
Natalie Titherington, from Oldham, says she was not aware of the guidance on face masks during labour when her baby girl was born last December. She said the birth was the most terrifying experience of her life. “I was gasping for air. I felt completely suffocated. I’m never going to be able to forget the feeling of not being able to breathe, and the fear and panic I felt while wearing a mask.”
Titherington says she was made to wear a face mask while she was in advanced labour, around 8cm dilated and having regular and very painful contractions.
“Someone put the mask on me and I said: ‘You can’t be serious,’ and she replied: ‘Yes,’ and then I remember having a contraction,” said Titherington, who has flashbacks of her traumatic birth and has been unable to wear a face covering since because it triggers the memory of struggling to breathe.
She ended up having an emergency caesarean and was told to wear the mask during the entire surgery, which goes against the official guidance.
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