New birthing clinic helps new moms get home quicker after delivery

A first of its kind in Ontario, early discharge clinics are allowing post-partum mothers to leave hospitals within a few hours. Pam Seatle with how the COVID-19 pandemic has more women choosing this option.

By Pam Seatle

A new birthing clinic at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga is helping expectant mothers achieve peace of mind in this COVID-19 climate.

It allows some new moms to leave the hospital only a few hours after giving birth, so they don’t have to worry about the possibility of catching COVID-19 and passing it onto their newborns.

Emy Darragh gave birth to a healthy baby girl on May 24. Since her delivery and labour were complication-free, she was told she may be eligible to go home after 12-hours instead of the usual 24 or 48 hours.

She jumped at the chance, especially since her husband was not allowed to stay with her for more than two hours after the baby was born due to the hospital’s coronavirus protocols.

Emy gave birth to a 7 pound 9 ounce baby girl at 11:30 p.m. and by 2 p.m. the next day she was home again with her husband and other two daughters.

“It was scary,” she says. “You see all the people that are in the hospital with corona…and bringing a new baby in the world and being worried about germs — it comes with stress,” she says. “It’s a lot of stress off of us to (be able to come home).”

The early discharge program was launched in mid-May and is only available to new moms who have had a low risk pregnancy and delivery. The mom also has to come back to the hospital the next day for the tests that are typically done after 24-hours.

Dr. Catherine Taylor, a neonatologist at Trillium Health Partners, says it is a different process compared to having family at the hospital and staying for a few days, but leaving early is something that families were requesting.

“We ensure they have the care they need by bringing them back afterwards,” Taylor says.

A quick trip home from the hospital is nothing new for midwife assisted births. If baby and mom are both well, they can be released in as little as an hour.

But the 24 midwives who work at Trillium Heath Partners’ two hospitals have also been called on to perform additional duties.

They are now providing home-care for new moms who are COVID-positive and need to isolate for 14 days. There have been three women so far who have needed this service.

The Association of Ontario Midwives (AOM) also says since the pandemic, there has been an uptick in requests for home births. They say in this frightening time, women are considering all their options.

“It’s too early to say what the hard numbers are, but a rough estimate from practices that I have checked in with across the province would be that the pre-COVID rate for home births was approximately 5 to 20 per cent, with some outlier practices being up as high as 50 per cent” says Jasmin Tecson, president of the AOM.

“And what we are informally seeing is that the rate has roughly doubled or tripled”.

The new early discharge program is also offered at Credit Valley Hospital and Mississauga Hospital. Administrators say it will continue for the foreseeable future, and if it is successful may do so post-pandemic.

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