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In maternity hospitals that have continued the policy of prohibited visits since the Covid, new mothers – and their babies – would find themselves more peaceful. A measure not always understood, however, by the entourage.
The Covid, and its multiple restrictions have divided France and turned our habits upside down. But there is one place where its limitations have had a particularly beneficial side effect: maternity hospitals. Indeed, according to a reportage France Infoin French maternities that have continued visiting restrictions (i.e. only the partner and siblings retain visiting rights) the mothers would be relieved, and the newborns calmer.
A time to recover in your bubble
One can easily imagine, in fact, that after a more or less complicated childbirth, a very emotional moment and the arrival of this new member of the family, keeping an area prohibited to visitors allows you to recover better and to your own rhythm and that of her baby.
“Once the anesthesia wears off, you get a stomach ache. You can hardly get up. Even carrying my child, it was complicated. The little energy I had was spent on the baby, watching her . It’s so new, so fragile” recounts Diane in the report, who admits not knowing how families can absorb this moment with the frequent visit of the family.
Calmer babies, more harmonious breastfeeding
Beyond the health risk, closing maternity wards to the public would also have a positive impact on the well-being of infants. An observation made by Célia Bellanger, midwife near Rouen:
“Since there are no more visits and the babies no longer pass from arm to arm, they are really only with their parents, it is much quieter at night, for the mothers, with calmer babies. Mothers are more rested and more “serene”, especially for the establishment of breastfeeding”
NO to diets, YES to WW!
Find a family celebration, but on a regulated time
On the extended family side, on the other hand, the sentence is difficult to live with and the grandparents in particular see this vigilance as an exaggeration. “They put it on the back of our generation, which makes choices a little new,” explains a young mother. However, new parents seem relieved to benefit from a new time while relying on a measure that they do not control.
A decision that is illustrated just as much by our neighbors: In Brussels, for example, most establishments limit visits to parents and siblings. In Berlin, the “one visitor per day for one hour” rule is applied in many hospitals. In London, the figure varies from zero visitors to two.
Like the establishment of restrictions, maternity visits are not the subject of national procedures: visit authorizations are internal procedures of each health establishment. The return to normal visits depends just as much on the management of these establishments. But in the event of a return to “normal”, the observation made on these maternities should be taken into account: authorize certain visits, or not, for a short time and adapted to the fatigue of the parents and the rhythm of the baby.