The Ministry of Health has modified the measures concerning the current ban of visitors in health and social institutions. Following a meeting with Czech labour and gynaecology department of ČLS JEP, the ministry of health has decided to modify the rules of the earlier announced temporary measures involving the ban of any visitors to any health institutions with hospital beds or any care homes during the outbreak of COVID-19.
The reason for this ban is to minimize social contact between people and to stop the spread of the virus in the community. This ban was later extended to the presence of a third person during childbirth in any health institution.
From 28. March 2020 all providers of health services must not allow a presence of a 3rd person during childbirth in a health institution, with the exception of labouring women who are not Czech native speakers and would need the presence of an interpreter, or have serious mental health issues, or are deaf, blind or have other serious health issues and with the exception of women with chances of a stillborn.
The minister of health, Adam Vojtěch, explained: “We have been consulting specialists on the presence of a third person during childbirth and they have all agreed that this is the right decision, that we have to eliminate the risk of the spread as much as possible. Every additional person present in the delivery room can significantly increase the risk not only for the labouring woman, but mainly for the medical staff present during the birth, and consequently at the whole labour ward. Nevertheless, we have recognized that there are some exceptional circumstances (such as a mental disease or a language barrier) and these women need the presence of a close person during their labour. It is also important to remind that the exception in visiting underaged patients, including newly born babies, still stands.”
This article has been kindly translated from source for Littlepanda by Jana Nemcova