Many expectant mothers across the First Coast aren’t allowed to have the support system they planned on in the delivery room when they give birth.
Due to COVID-19, hospitals have put in place restrictions limiting only one additional person in the room during delivery.
That’s left doulas, an important support system for many women, out of the picture. A doula is someone they’ve hired and is trained to help support expecting mothers in their right to decide what happens to them and their baby during delivery.
Christin Murillo, a doula at Wonderfully Made Doula Services in Jacksonville, says it's stripping moms of their rights.
“Safety can’t trump birthing rights for women,” she said.
In March, Jacksonville labor and delivery wards restricted the number of support people in the delivery room for laboring moms because of COVID-19.
“They were forced to choose between their partner, or father of the baby, or their doula,” Murillo said.
Doulas are “bettering birth outcomes,” Murillo said. Doulas use techniques to help moms deliver naturally when possible and preventing unplanned c-sections.
“It’s just unrealistic to continue to keep the doulas out,” Murillo sad.
She’s seen the absence of doulas during labor has had dramatic mental and physical effects on moms including “much higher rates of cesarean births, traumatic birth experiences,” she said.
One of her clients, Ally Bermejo, says the birth of her first daughter in April completely changed how she pictured becoming a family without Murillo in the room.
“It was rough emotionally to not have the support you planned on having,” said Bermejo, who planned on having a big family with her husband.
Now she says they might not have any more children because this was "not the experience we wanted."
Feeling like mom’s birthing rights are being trumped during COVID-19, doulas across the state have signed a petition urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to allow them back into the delivery room.
“We have many, many women who are backed into a corner,” Murillo said.
So far in Jacksonville, only St. Vincent’s Hospital has allowed doulas back in the delivery room.
Murillo says most hospitals tell her they aren’t allowing doulas as extra support until at least 2021.