Prakash Chandran: As COVID-19 rates continue to rise, many are fearful of giving birth in the hospital during this time. Fortunately medical professionals are practicing extensive safety procedures to ensure a safe and healthy delivery for the entire family. We're going to talk about it today with Tiffany Rede, a Assistant Director of Labor and Delivery at Tenant Health Central Coast. This is Healthy Conversations, the podcast from Tenant Health Central Coast, I'm Prakash Chandran. So first of all, Tiffany, let's get right into the main question here. Is it safe to have a baby in the hospital during this time?

Tiffany Rede: We have put a lot of safeguards in place where it's absolutely safe to have your baby at the hospital.

Host: So I've heard about all the different measures that the hospital has been putting into place, and I would like to talk about some of them. What extra safety precautions have been added to the labor and delivery department to ensure safe delivery?

Tiffany Rede: So the hospital is a really safe environment to have your baby. Along with our previous safety precautions that we have put into place to make it a safe environment, with COVID we have added additional precautions. If a patient calls and let’s us know that they’re on their way while they’re in labor at home, we’re able to screen them on that phone call and let them know what we’re going to be doing for them when they arrive. We’re also able to put precautions in place with our proper protective equipment before they arrive. We’ve also put in place that all of our staff and our physicians, including anybody that comes in the door of the hospital, is screened on a daily basis.

We also put in place that each patient that arrives is allowed to have a designated support person, along with a certified doula, so they’re able to have two support people while they’re in labor and in the laboring process to help coach them through their needs and their laboring process.

Host: You mentioned that people are screened. Mothers are screened. Talk a little bit about what that screening process looks like.

Tiffany Rede: The screening process is when they arrive at the hospital, there's specific screeners that are going to meet you in the front entrance, and they ask you a series of questions. And based on that criteria that question, kind of puts you in the path of where you're going, either going to be tested, or you're going to be going out to our unit and your screened. And we're just going to take the normal, safe precautions in place that we already have in place. So it kind of depends on the situation, but also if we have a screening positive, we're going to test you on your arrival based on what the screen was.

Host: I see. Okay. So you're doing everything that you possibly can just to make sure everyone is safe and healthy before even entering the hospital environment. Is that correct?

Tiffany Rede: Correct.

Host: Okay. Even with all of this, I know that there's some apprehension and some concern, and you hear people that are saying, you know, I think it might be safer to give birth at home, which frankly scares me personally, as a father that's been through it. Can you talk a little bit about your opinion on this?

Tiffany Rede: You can give birth at home, but it's not as safe as in a hospital situation. There's so many variables through the labor process that can result in the need of emergency services and hospital trained staff are able to provide those emergency services. Another variable that a lot of people probably don't put on their radar is like, we were just talking about our hospital staff are all screened every day when they come to the hospital, you don't really know in a home birth situation. You don't know the status of those people that are involved in your care at home.

Host: And it's the environment too, right? In the hospital room, everything has been sterilized. You're making sure that everything is as safe as possible. Where at home you just don't have, the comprehensive measures set up to do that. Right?

Tiffany Rede: Correct. I mean, there's been so much research that's coming out right now of what kind of products are needed to help cleaning these rooms and we've put different practices in place to help maintain that sterilization.

Host: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So one thing that I know must be on the mind of a lot of listeners is pregnancy. And COVID, what information can you share about this?

Tiffany Rede: Well, there's, it's such a new virus and data is being collected all the time and it's constantly evaluated. And our practices are kind of evolving as the data's being collected, but each professional organization is coming out and publishing recommendations to help guide us through our practices in the hospital. Nothing's being overlooked, everything's being looked at. And we really rely on these professional organizations like ACOG, AWAN, CMQCC, American Academy of Pediatrics. So those, those are the areas that are really guiding us and Department of Public Health. Also guiding us through our practices.

Host: Yeah, that's good to hear. So one of the things that I've heard is that new moms are more vulnerable to the virus since they're recovering from this traumatic experience of giving birth. Can you talk a little bit about this?

Tiffany Rede: So, they're not more vulnerable in the recovery process in this COVID situation, we just are more encouraging hand hygiene, social distancing, and now we have this precaution of face masks too. So we're just trying to really encourage the hand hygiene, the face mask and the social distancing to limit the exposure to COVID.

Host: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So I wanted to talk about the time leading up to the actual birth and then the time afterwards. So let's start with beforehand. Is there anything that parents can do to protect themselves and their baby during the process of this pregnancy leading up to birth?

Tiffany Rede: Actually, we fortunate to live in SLO County because our Department of Public Health has really taken a proactive approach to implementing guidelines for our community. And the key guidelines are maintain social distancing, hand, hygiene, and face mask in public areas. And they really started that pretty quickly after we started seeing some COVID in the United States.

Host: Yeah, absolutely. So as long as you're taking those precautionary measures, the pregnancy or things leading up to go into the hospital itself should be pretty normal.

Tiffany Rede: Correct.

Host: Are there any extra safeguards that should be taken as the parents now bring their babies home and this new COVID world we're living in?

Tiffany Rede: So as new parents, we have always tried to encourage limiting exposure to your baby, but now there's just a little bit more emphasis on it and a little bit more detail, like having social distancing and lots of hand washing and wearing your face mask when you're caring for your baby. So those are kind of things that we have really encouraged even more as our parents are getting discharged out.

Host: Let's talk about the support system for the parents that are going through this and giving birth to a new child. What is the visitation policy like, and what are the rules around who can be with the mother as they give birth?

Tiffany Rede: A soon to be mom that arrives on our floor is able to designate a support person for themselves through their whole stay. They’re also allowed to bring in a certified doula to help coach them through the laboring process. The doula also helps the family or the parents work through the laboring process together and be an advocate for their preferences, which is great support for a new family.

Host: And so, in addition to those that are allowed to be with the mother throughout this process, as you might imagine and I’m sure you’ve seen, there’s so many people that want to be involved with the baby's birth when the baby comes home. So do you have any tips on how new parents can share their baby's birth without having people visit in person?

Tiffany Rede: Yeah, we're very fortunate with the day we live in where there's so much technology at our fingertips with our phones and iPads, and we have seen families do FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, family members, and friends from outside the hospital, from different States, and actually different countries too. Cause we have surrogacies too. So they're able to see their baby or this brand new baby come into this world, but it's just a little bit different it's on your screen instead, but we've actually seen it in person and people have been actually happy with it, but we try to see if we can encourage that kind of practice when they go home to is they can do that Skyping and they could do the FaceTime and they could do the Zooming with family members that can't make it from out of state because of our, the situation that we are in, depending what state you're in.

Host: For people that are apprehensive or scared about having a baby at the hospital. Is there any final piece of advice or anything that you might want to share with them to alleviate their concerns?

Tiffany Rede: Yes, I would. If your birth plan was to have your baby in the hospital, don't let, COVID change that for you, maintain your birth planning and go ahead and have your baby in the hospital. We still try to give the best birth experience a family wants, whatever their wishes are. We try to maintain that as much as possible. We still have access to this beautiful patio that the family can go to. When they're going through the laboring process, we have a birthing tub too, or laboring tub that they're able to use during the labor process too. So we still try to really adhere to their preferences as much as we can. And we're not really limiting them as when they're staying here.

Host: I love that. It's kind of like one of these things where I think what I'm understanding is just because we're in the middle of a pandemic, it doesn't diminish you trying to provide the best birth experience possible for the family. And you've taken a lot of measures and precautions to make sure that that happens. Isn't that correct?

Tiffany Rede: Correct. And our staff understand this is going to be a little bit of a different time. And so they're really trying to pay attention to what these families want and try to make it as best as possible.

Host: Awesome. Tiffany, I think that is a great place to end. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. That's Tiffany Rede, assistant director of labor and delivery at Tenant Health Central Coast. Thanks for checking out this episode of Healthy Conversations. For your referral to a provider called the Tenant Health Central Coast Physician Referral Line at (866) 966-3680. Check out our entire podcast library at tenanthealthcentralcoast.com/about/podcasts. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. This has been Healthy Conversations, the podcast from Tenant Health Central Coast. Thanks, and we'll talk next time.