Dr Ameet Dhurandhar talks about delivery protocols as per the recent guidelines and how you can do it all without any stress
So labor and delivery protocols are getting a little bit more stringent. Only one person is allowed in to accompany the Mumma – the laboring mother and the same person will be staying for the whole length of the stay and for the delivery and post-delivery. Both the Mumma and the partner, the boarding partner has to get tested for Covid-19.
So that’s going to be a swab test and they are getting, now they’re getting an Ella test also, which should be launched I think tomorrow, tomorrow is Wednesday. So there’ll be a rapid detection test, but both the mother and the birthing partner will have to be tested and has to be tested before they come to the hospital.
And also stay. What I’m doing is I’m trying to restrict the stay also, even normal deliveries. I’m sending them home the next day. C-sections. also, if there are, we try to send, sending them home. And on day two or day three, and my doulas are following up at home with them. So we are trying to restrict the number of days in the hospital because you know how it is, the hospitals can be kind of a cesspool for infection.
Though maternity hospitals are not, that much because a multispecialty hospital has got an infectious disease ward, etc. So that probably is a bit more. But basically, we are trying to get the mothers tested and fewer days in the hospital. And one companion throughout the visit labor goes on as is, is it is like a normal, non-COVID, infected mother. So that is it!
The labor, we are not, there are no protocols to speed up, labor augment, labor, all will be started given naturally. So there’ll be all no inductions. Naturally, labor will be starting, C-section only. There’s an obstetric call and, and yes, we are giving options for water birth after counseling the parents because there is a slight infection. There’s a worry in the waterboarding community for fecal transmission because they are saying the viral load in the fecal matter is present. So the transmitting the virus from the water to the baby is suspect, but, nothing is confirmed.
Most of the studies which are coming out, see what you need to understand that the studies are very few. They’re not that many studies. All the studies were done in China where there’d be no transmission, zero, almost zero transmission to the babies because there’d be like anything 25% C-sections. So that is the, and also we don’t know.
We do not know. They’re not being that many studies on water birth or natural normal labor, you know, so, so we have to see each day as a learning curve even for us. Lots of studies keep coming up every day. The COG, the American, the COG, the RCOG, they’re all coming up daily. They’re updating the website.
CDC is updating the website websites, so, so yes. So we are learning with each day and everything seems to be quite okay as of now.
