London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

One in seven UK mothers barred from seeing sick babies due to Covid-19 restrictions, preemie charity finds

One in seven UK mothers barred from seeing sick babies due to Covid-19 restrictions, preemie charity finds

Coronavirus health restrictions have severely curtailed the time UK mothers are allowed to spend with their hospitalized babies, impeding bonding and possibly worsening health outcomes, a premature infants' charity has found.
Some 14 percent of parents with sick and premature babies have been prevented from staying at their newborns' bedside by Covid-19 regulations adopted haphazardly by the National Health Service, according to a recent survey by premature babies' charity Bliss, cited by the Mail on Sunday.

A Hertfordshire mother told of being forced to "book a slot" to visit her five-week-premature daughter, with only one parent being allowed inside the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Cambridge's Rosie Hospital. A first-time parent, Katie Orger complained that she missed the chance to breastfeed her little girl, and the lack of "skin-to-skin and lasting contact with my daughter" disrupted their bonding.

Another couple was deprived of the chance to visit their daughter together by Royal Bolton Hospital, restrictions they say estranged them from their baby, who was born with jaundice and required oxygen. "When I brought Emily home after nine days, it felt like someone else's child because the restrictions stopped that bond," Carly Maclean told Bliss.

During "normal" times, parents have 24-hour access to NICUs. Neonatal care staff and even national authorities like the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health have urged hospitals not to consider parents "visitors" with regard to social distancing and other coronavirus restrictions that are keeping them away from their children, but some individual hospitals have made their own rules.

Bliss concluded its report with a recommendation that the NHS issue a blanket order guaranteeing parents access to NICUs as a "matter of urgency." Its CEO Caroline Lee-Davey explained to the Mail that "our smallest and sickest babies need their parents at their side to give them the best chance of survival, even during a pandemic."

There's good reason for concern for both mothers and babies, as stillbirths nearly doubled between April and June in England while the country shut down "non-essential" care to fight the novel coronavirus. A report earlier this month in the Health Services Journal suggested the official line of "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives" likely frightened ailing mothers away from seeking care – for themselves and their children.

The UK's lockdown resulted in a spike in excess deaths in private homes as sick people concerned about being a burden on the national system opted to stay home and suffer in private rather than seek treatment or diagnosis for maladies that may have been curable. Ambulance calls to suicides also soared during the first six weeks of lockdown as people were ill-equipped to deal with prolonged isolation.

The UK is far from the only country to adopt questionable treatment of new mothers under the guise of enforcing coronavirus restrictions, however. In France, women are being forced to "mask up" during labor, complicating delivery and even causing lasting psychological trauma according to a group campaigning to end the requirement.

In the US, conflicting guidance from health authorities has led hospitals to separate mothers from their newborns and prohibit holding or breastfeeding of babies – even without evidence the virus can be transmitted through breastmilk. In Canada, Montreal's Sainte-Justine Hospital quarantined a new mother for a whopping 55 days, refusing to allow her to hold or nurse her child for the first two months of its life.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×