Parents-to-be, government, and public and private hospitals have clashed in recent days over regulations around birth during the coronavirus pandemic. After hospitals banned support partners in labor and delivery rooms, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo stepped in to prevent new parents from being separated. Now, a mom from Blackwood, New Jersey, says she gave birth at home because she was told her husband would not be able to join her for her daughter's arrival.
Erin Persia tells CafeMom that after going into labor, she and her husband headed to Virtua Voorhees Hospital in South Jersey.
"When we had arrived at the hospital, they informed me my husband would not be able be with me," Persia explains. "As we walked into the entrance to labor and delivery, they stopped us at the doors and asked us a ton of questions and took my temperature, and then said he couldn't come back with me because of COVID-19. After a panic attack, my husband convinced me to go back, and, if I needed him, to call. So, I went back and checked in."
But Persia felt that she was treated coldly by staff. "I felt scared and alone, and everything in my gut was screaming to leave," she recalls. "So, I did."
A spokesperson from Virtua Voorhees tells CafeMom that they're "unable to comment on a specific patient's experience."
The spokesperson explained the hospital's visitor policy: "The one designated care partner — such as a husband — is allowed in the delivery room to be by the side of the birthing mom. There could be the need for the care partner to wait outside temporarily, but only during the initial assessment. If someone was told something other than that or misinterpreted what he or she were told, that would be an unfortunate miscommunication."
Opting to follow her instincts, Persia decided to go back to the car and head home to handle her birth there.
"My husband was so confused but trusted me to just go back home," she says. "In the meantime, my labor had completely stopped, I think because my body was in fight or flight mode."
Persia told her parents, who had been watching the couple's three other children, that they could go home, because she thought her labor had stopped.
"They were planning to come back later when needed," says Persia. "So, it was just me and my husband."
The pair decided to handle the birth on their own in the bathtub.
Two hours later, labor had started up again and got intense. "We called my friend/neighbor to help manage the kids," the mom of four recalls. "The kids were interested and worried as to what was going on in the bathroom. And why was mom yelling."
Although this was Persia's first home birth, she was empowered to do it.
"My great-grandmom had all of her seven kids at home, and I knew my body was capable of so much and that if I just trusted myself I would know what to do, so that’s what I did," she explains.
Her daughter, Amelia Gracelyn Persia, was born at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
"I’ve never been more proud of myself or my husband," Persia wrote in a Facebook post. "Thank you so so much to my sweet neighbor for coming over on a heartbeat when I told her we needed her help, and bless my parents' heart who showed up just as she was born and helped me through every second after. Big shout out to my dad who went out and bought cake!"
Following Amelia's birth, Persia tells CafeMom she chatted with her OB on the phone.
Persia's doctor applauded his patient for the way she and her husband made the best of a less than ideal situation. The New Jersey mom shares, "I told him what I did, and he basically was like, 'You're a badass. I’m proud of you.'"
