NHS England has this week issued new guidance to NHS Trusts on ensuring partners are able to support women throughout their pregnancies.

NHS England is now asking Trusts to adopt three simple steps:

Undertake an appropriate risk assessment in each part of their maternity service,

Make creative changes to the configuration of all maternity spaces where appropriate, to ensure mothers can have their support person attend, and

Use available testing capacity (eg PCR, rapid PCR testing, or lateral flow testing) to test women and their support person to help mitigate infection risks, in particular for:

- Scan appointments

- Fetal medicine appointments

- At birth

- And for parents whose babies require neonatal care

Women should not be refused access to asymptomatic partners while test results are pending and where appropriate infection control can be maintained.

The guidance also states that women should have access to support at all times during their maternity journey and Trusts should facilitate this, while keeping the risk of transmission within NHS maternity services as low as possible. Including making sure that the woman can safely take a support person to:

Early pregnancy unit

All antenatal scans

Labour and birth from the point of attendance at the hospital or midwifery unit

As well as, those who are admitted for early pregnancy loss, on the antenatal or postnatal ward in line with pre-COVID Trust policies

The move follows campaigning by Rutland MP Alicia Kearns on the issue, as previously reported by Nub News.

The MP, who is due to have her second child in the New Year, commented: "I am very relieved to see this new guidance issued as I have been calling for NHS England to leave NHS Trusts in no doubt that they should be doing all they can to ensure partners are present at all scans and all stages of labour, and that the rapid tests made available to all Trusts by the Government be used for both mother and their support person."

"There is no excuse for women to be labouring alone, losing a baby with no support or finding out the worst news alone at a scan. These measures will keep clinicians safe and reduce the trauma of women across our country."

Yesterday, Mrs Kearns likened the situation to a lottery, as different hospital trusts had different guidelines.

She wrote in Politics Home: "My local Trust has rightly adhered to government guidance throughout the pandemic, and my husband has been able to support me at my scans and will be present for the entirety of my labour.

"The same is not true for all my constituents, and tens of thousands of women and families across our country. I launched my campaign to end the scandal of lone labour and scans because I could not countenance the idea that some of my constituents were being denied the support that I relied on."

The Guidance is available in full here.