Oxford hospital trust partners welcomed back at pregnancy scans at Horton and JR hospitals after lockdown bar

Partners are allowed to accompany their pregnant partners during antenatal scans

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) says one support person is welcome to join women attending for pregnancy ultrasound scans at the Horton or the John Radcliffe Hospital.

"To ensure that we continue to maintain a safe service, only one support person is allowed for the entire appointment and no children can be present," said Ali Cuthbertson, Director of Midwifery at the Trust.

The advice remains that anyone attending hospital must not have any COVID symptoms. Scans will be rearranged if a woman is not well.

Like many maternity units, the Trust has made a number of changes to how it provides care to women during pregnancy, to keep both patients and staff members safe. This has included carrying out some appointments by telephone or video.

However, the maternity service is still open 24/7 for births, urgent care, and clinical advice. Some face-to-face appointments with a midwife or doctor are essential and it is important to attend.

Ms Cuthbertson said: "We know how much it means to women to have their partners present and so we are really pleased that following changes in national guidance we are now able to welcome them back. In order to keep everyone safe, children will not be able to be present, and each woman will only be able to bring one person with her.”

"I would also like to take this opportunity to remind women that if they have an urgent problem, you can speak to a midwife or doctor day or night at our Maternity Assessment Unit."

"We are running our usual high risk antenatal clinics in the Horton and at the John Radcliffe and the ultrasound departments at both hospitals are also still running. Our midwives are still able to see women regularly in pregnancy including in Banbury, Chipping Norton, Wantage and Wallingford, as well as in Oxford."

Although antenatal classes are not running in person at present midwifery teams are running childbirth and 'Ask the Midwife' sessions using Facebook live from their Oxfordshire Maternity Voices Partnership page.