Rules may vary state by state or hospital to hospital, but pregnant people have the right to a positive childbirth experience. Here’s what you need to know about welcoming a baby into the world amid COVID-19.
“The bottom line is that pregnant people have the same health care rights as anyone else: the right to decide who touches them, the right to make all decisions in their health care,” says Cristen Pascucci, advocate and educator for legal and human rights in childbirth, founder of Birth Monopoly, and director of Mother May I. “We—both parents and providers—often have this idea that our rights change once a baby is involved, but that is more of a cultural idea than a legal one. If anything, these basic rights are even more important during pregnancy and birth, when we are responsible for this little life we will be guiding and protecting for the next 18 years.”
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