Partner Exclusion from Childbirth During COVID-19 in Canada: Implications for Theory and Policy

Abstract

ABSTRACT We explore partner exclusion from perinatal care in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants’ narratives show that pregnant couples frame partner presence as a [human] right that was denied, and articulated this as denial of the “right to experience” and the “right to care.” These restrictions deprived birth partners and families of an experience that is important to them, and represent a repudiation of the resurgence of birth as a social event which entails valued forms of care. We show that the medical establishment’s commitment to partner presence during perinatal care is weak, although caring masculinity is normative.