Update on visiting to Poole maternity unit 

NHS England published revised guidance for adult visiting to hospitals earlier this year. In our maternity services at Poole Hospital, we took the opportunity to review our attendance and visiting guidance, taking into account the additional needs of birthing parents, the un-born and new-born baby, and the environments we are providing maternity care in.

We had been delighted to lift the visiting restrictions as an optimistic sign of return to normality for women and their families. However, in light of the guidance, risk assessments were undertaken within the department and due to the size of the bays and numbers in the bays it was deemed that visiting needed to be restricted.

These include:

• Antenatal clinics, antenatal day assessment unit and scans: one partner only permitted in the waiting toom and consulting room
• Labour ward and Haven birthing suite: two birthing partners permitted.
• Antenatal ward, postnatal wards, transitional care unit: one partner or visitor at any one time, open visiting 10am-11pm, no overnight stays

This decision was taken very reluctantly by our senior team based on further advice from infection prevention control, taking into account the outdated design of our maternity unit at St Mary’s. This is also in line with Dorset County Hospital which also does not have partners staying overnight in a bay with women and babies.

We also have to take into account helping to protect the privacy, dignity and safety of all mothers and their babies in our maternity wards. We want to ensure that our mothers are able to have protected time and this is not possible with visitors there 24 hours a day. The midwifery matrons are aware that most service users find it very comforting to have a relative or their partner present but that in a shared ward, they also have concerns about sleeping while strangers are awake and in the same room. 

We have worked hard to ensure that not all partners are banned from staying overnight but instead individual decisions are made for those women who have special circumstances, such as those with disability, significant communication challenges or complex medical, mental or social factors which necessitate additional social support. We have accommodated postnatal women in other areas such as the birth centre and the bereavement suite in order for them to have their partner stay overnight. Both of these areas have ensuite facilities which are necessary when a partner is accommodated overnight.  

The visiting risk assessments will be kept under review by the Trust in line with national guidance and local prevalence of Covid as well as taking into consideration our estate and footfall in certain areas. Our visiting guidance for maternity are published here.