HRiC informs European Parliament Action on Maternity Care during COVID-19

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis and its effect on maternity care around the world, Human Rights in Childbirth has been working to document and advocate for the rights of families and their babies to receive evidence-based care.

HRiC has been working with Predrag Fred Matić, a Member of European Parliament (MEP), member of the Committee on Gender Equality (FEMM Committee) and rapporteur for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights to bring light to some of the problems women throughout Europe and the world are facing in maternity care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the problems we have documented, and we have warned human rights organisations, policymakers and professional organisations about include:

• Maternity services are being de-prioritised with regards to adequate staffing, personal protective equipment for staff and access to needed resources
• Community and out of hospital maternity services (including midwifery units and home birth) are being closed down without warning
• Women are being forced to submit to unwanted inductions and scheduled caesarean sections with no obstetric indication
• Women are being separated from their newborn infants
• Women are being denied the right to a companion in labour and birth, as well as visitors

All citizens are entitled to the protection of their right to the highest attainable level of health during this crisis. Mothers and babies should be no exception to that rule. The countries that have responded well to the needs of pregnant and birthing women strongly indicate that the aforementioned restrictions are unnecessary and disproportionate to the level of the needed safety and health requirements in relation to COVID-19 prevention and protection.

There are a number of good practice examples in some countries where, through systematic human-rights based approach, due changes have been made in order to protect the right to health at the highest attainable standard, with measures in place to protect both the medical staff as well as women and children in childbirth and pre and post-natal care. For example, some countries have ensured safety by acquiring adequate staffing and protective equipment as part of the targeted actions, while others have converted hotels near maternity hospitals into temporary birth centres to support both healthy non-symptomatic women and protect maternity healthcare workers from COVID-19 exposure. This is a measure implemented to ensure access to a safe childbirth environment, thus not allowing the situation of women giving birth in medical transportation vehicles and similar, which has happened in some instances where due measures were not taken. Other countries encourage birth companions and ensure the safety of all medical staff and patients in doing so with the implementation of protective restrictions on movement within hospital facilities. Health systems should not be actively engaged in damaging the health and well-being of pregnant women, mothers and babies. 

MEP Matić rallied the support of 62 fellow MEPs and sent a letter to the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides asking her to support activities which ensure the achievement of the fundamental right to health and ask you to urge Member States to ensure that maternity services are appropriately resourced and that women’s rights are respected through a proportional response to the pandemic in accordance with the best evidence and guidelines, including those provided by the WHO. The letter is below, along with a list of MEPs that have signed on.