The H1N1 virus is affecting families in new ways as great efforts are made to stop the spread of the virus. Here in the city where I live, no siblings under the age of twelve are allowed to visit new babies and their moms in the mother/baby ward of the hospital. That means a mother may not see her children for the duration of her hospital stay. For many moms welcoming a new baby to a family with young children, this new development is heartbreaking.
This means if a woman is staying in the mother/baby ward for four days (the normal length of stay for a mother who has a cesarean), her young children will not be able to see her for that time, until she is discharged. Four days is a very long time for a toddler to go without seeing his or her mom.
The only way I see around this is for the mother to be wheeled to another area of the hospital, such as the cafeteria, to visit her children. That is unless the hospital forbids it. All things considered, I would hope hospital staff would consider the needs of the family and overlook this “walk around the grounds.”
Even if the mother is allowed to visit her other children, these siblings will still have to wait two to five days to see their new sibling. That is what really makes me sad. It is so precious to see a child meet their new baby brother or sister for the first time. Newborns change so much in the first week. I imagine it would be really difficult for a mother to not be able to show the new baby to her other children for that length of time.
Are you a mother of young children who is expecting another in the next months? Have you heard about your hospital’s policy on sibling visitors in lieu of the H1N1 epidemic? How would you feel if your hospital forbid your children from visiting you?