MOTHERS who have stayed at Poole Maternity Unit have written an open letter to the CEO at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, following the reintroduction of visiting restrictions.

Poole Maternity Unit has reintroduced restrictions meaning partners will no longer be allowed to stay overnight.

Partners will now be allowed on the wards from 10am - 11pm, and will be asked to return home to rest outside of these hours.

Read more: Poole Maternity Unit reintroduces restrictions on partner visits

NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group said this was due to ongoing issues with aggression towards staff, complaints from service users and an increase in covid cases.

However, mothers who experienced the restrictions during the pandemic, say they caused ‘extreme distress and they had difficulty caring for themselves and babies as a result of not having their partner with them at night.’

One mum has written an open letter calling on the trust to immediately revoke any partner restrictions and follow up with proper risk assessments.

It has now been signed by more than 80 people, whose testaments can be read in the letter.

She said: “I know first-hand how being separated from your partner after birth can be traumatic.

"After my birth in 2020 I was without an advocate and support to care for our son, the understaffed ward meant my son was sometimes fed late and often sat in dirty nappies and I slept in bloody sheets.

"Maternity staff were doing their best, they need to be supported to deliver the level of care they so desperate want to.

"Restricting partner access does not help this. It was unbelievably painful to not have my partner with me after the most challenging and transformative experience of my life.

"I just wept without my partner, our family still deal with the ramifications of this. I ended up discharging myself and my son against medical advice, with my family's full support, as we felt the risk to mine and my son's physical and well being and my mental health outweighed the risks of leaving.

"Unfortunately, my experience is not unique, I've lost count of the number of women I've met in baby and toddler groups who are now suffering with depression, anxiety and PTSD because of these restrictions.

“I have just found out I'm pregnant, while I'm ecstatically happy, I'm also nervous. I will not attend hospital unless my partner can be with me at all times, for me, the risks would outweigh the benefits.”

In June, Poole Hospital lifted all of their visiting restrictions, as they were one of only three trusts in the UK still restricting postnatal visiting to one hour a day.

READ MORE: Hospitals in Dorset announce change in postnatal visiting hours

At the time, mother Isabella Gamble described her experiences of the restrictions.

Bournemouth Echo:

After hearing that they were being reintroduced, she said: “We are seeing a crisis in maternal mental health as a direct result of service changes during the pandemic, so it is really concerning to hear Poole Maternity Services have restricted visiting again.

“People who have just given birth are both physically and emotionally vulnerable and without the option to have a partner by their side after just having a baby - it can feel really scary and traumatic. It was for me.

“I believe midwives do the most important and brilliant job in the world - but from my personal experience the service is so stretched they aren’t able to provide the level of care and support that a partner can by physically being by the side of mum and baby day and night.

"If maternity services cannot guarantee they are well enough resourced to put a crying baby in the arms of their mother if she is unable to pick her baby up - they should not be excluding partners.

“Partners aren’t just ‘visitors’, their presence and support is essential to the wellbeing of mothers and newborn babies.”

To read the open letter visit: shorturl.at/aRUW2

The letter can be signed here: shorturl.at/aepq7