Warning to expecting moms: Required to wear mask during PUSHING at Holy Cross

[Anonymous]

Hey, fun story.

After laboring for 24 hours, and an ill-timed nurse shift change, I was just forced to wear a mask at Holy Cross Hospital when I was about to enter the pushing stage of labor. The nurse placed a surgical mask on my chest while I was in the middle of a contraction, eyes closed, breathing hard, clenching the sides of my bed in pain, and told me to put it on. When I didn’t respond by putting the mask on she admonished me for “noncompliance with hospital policy”

Reader, I had had a negative COVID test in triage. I had been vaccinated months ago.

The staff at Holy Cross forced me to wear a mask as I pushed out my 8 pound baby.

If you’re planning a delivery at Holy Cross, you may want to reconsider your plans.

[Anonymous]

And you survived and have, presumably, a healthy baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And you survived and have, presumably, a healthy baby.

This response
Sorry OP.

[Anonymous]

Oh, you poor thing.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry, OP

[Anonymous]

WT actual F!?

[Anonymous]

I had to wear one during my Sibley delivery last year. Why are you surprised?

[Anonymous]

Sorry OP.

Welcome to motherhood where everyone has an opinion and some even think it is a public service to offer you their opinion on child safety.

[Anonymous]

I had to wear one to deliver at INOVA Fairfax last summer. No trying to diminish how much it sucks, just letting you know you’re not the only one who went through this.

[Anonymous]

Ok?

[Anonymous]

I was allowed to go mask free at Anne Arundel Medical Center this July with negative test alone, didn’t even ask for vaccine record (I’d had one shot). I’d be furious OP.

[Anonymous]

I wore one at WHC but i had to take it off to puke and then I don’t think it went back on until after.

Op birth can be traumatic, I wouldn’t get hung up on this. It’s easy to channel the stress into outrage but that’s not always the best way to process it.

[Anonymous]

Why would you be furious? What’s done is done.

There are so many other ways a hospital can mistreat a laboring mother.

Many wishes to you and your little one, I hope you can let this go and enjoy the baby stage as much as you can as it goes very fast!

[Anonymous]

And if the woman in the throes of childbirth refuses, takes it off every time they put it on and/or fights back, what’re the hospital people going to do? Abandon her? Physically restrain her? Shoot her up with chemical restraints? People in medical facilities too commonly forget that patients are not prisoners or children and it is the professionals who owe the duty to the patient, not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

I would complain to hospital management.