"Please allow partners to stay after birth"

KEMH and many Perth public hospitals have a visiting policy that doesn’t allow partners to stay overnight with their new baby on the ward with the mum. I delivered my first baby recently after a very long labour and no sleep for 3 days, plus complications that meant I was transferred from the birthing centre to the hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital didn’t allow my husband and father of my newborn baby to stay overnight to help care for myself and my baby. This meant I was trying to recover and take care of a very unsettled new baby, and trying to breastfeed and express breast milk all on my own overnight with no sleep. I recall the nurses were so busy that I didn’t have any help overnight, or time to sleep to enable me to better recover and care for my new little one.

I believe the hospital needs to allow husbands/fathers or at least 1 support person to stay overnight to help as it is often so difficult for a new mum. This policy has had a huge impact on my mental health as well as my partner's and really needs to be reconsidered, in my opinion. I feel we have never been provided a really good reason for the policy - we were told ‘safety and privacy reasons’, with no expansion on this. Plus, with regard to covid, all of the Dads were in and out of the hospital, so I believe there was actually greater covid exposure. Given society is now encouraging dads to take a more active role in parenting it seems very out dated. Please note there is no expectation of extra food or beds etc, just the option to stay and take the pressure off health staff by provided the non-medical love support and care we really need for our mental health. 

* I believe this policy was in place prior to covid.