Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) has updated guidelines, effective April 24, for its Family Birth and Newborn Centers:

• If you reside in or have recently traveled to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut, you may visit Family Health and Newborn Centers as long as you meet the screening criteria required of hospital visitors.

• If you have been quarantined at home because of suspected COVID-19, you will not be permitted to visit Family Birth and Newborn Centers until you meet the criteria to discontinue home quarantine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventioin (CDC), you can stop quarantining at home at least seven days from the start of your symptoms and after at least 72 hours without fever, coughing or shortness of breath.

• If you are under home quarantine for international travel or interstate travel from New York or New Jersey, you will not be permitted to visit Family Birth and Newborn Centers.

Family Birth and Newborn Centers visits restrictions remaining in effect include:

Triage - To reduce personal protective equipment (PPE) consumption during the short time of a visit in rooms with close proximity, no visits will be permitted in the Triage Area. Unless delivery appears imminent, anyone who accompanies patients to the hospital will be asked to wait in the car, not the waiting room, or leave the campus and return for pickup if patient is discharged. One support person will be permitted to accompany the patient if she is admitted for delivery.

Perinatal-Antepartum Units - Visits to Perinatal Units (PNU) is not permitted, except under unusual circumstances that should be approved by unit leadership. Examples might include high chance of emergent delivery, fetal demise, postpartum care on PNU because of overflow or for a medical indication.

Labor and Delivery-Mother-Baby Unit - Patients will continue to receive appropriate medical and obstetrical care. Visits will still be permitted on Labor and Delivery and Mother-Baby Units with the following guidance:

• Completion of health screening procedures will take place for visitors before entering the unit.

• Visitors who have a confirmed or presumed diagnosis of COVID-19 and have not yet met criteria for discontinuation of home quarantine will be prohibited from entering the Family Birth and Newborn Centers. According to CDC, home isolation can be discontinued after at least seven days from symptom onset and at least 72 hours without fever, cough or shortness of breath.

• Visitors failing to meet the following criteria will be prohibited from entering Family Birth and Newborn Centers:

o COVID-19 testing pending

o High-risk exposure (less than six feet for more than two minutes) to someone with confirmed COVID-19 within last 14 days

o Symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath) suggestive of COVID-19 infection

o Under 14-day home quarantine for international travel or interstate travel from New York or New Jersey

Other guidelines include:

• Patients and visitors will undergo daily monitoring (temperature and assessment of symptoms) during the stay in the hospital.

• Visitors will bring his or her own mask (a clean, dry, freshly laundered cloth mask is acceptable) to be worn at all times in the hospital.

• One consistent person should remain through the entire stay. If the person leaves the hospital, he or she may not return.

• Visitors will remain in the patient room for the entirety of the stay, except to visit newborn admitted to NICU. Meals can be provided for visitors by patient food services.

• If the mother is a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patient and separation with newborn is performed as recommended by CDC, the visitor cannot move between mother’s isolation room and newborn isolation room-nursery. Ideally, the visitor for a mother in Labor and Delivery becomes the newborn visitor and no longer visits the mother. A new visitor for the mother is not advised. If the mother and newborn are co-located in one room, then the visitor stays in the room with both of them, primarily to provide newborn care.

• Visitors who do not or cannot adhere to these rules will be asked to leave the premises for the protection of a high-risk population. Another visitor will not be allowed to replace him or her.

Operation Room - Visitors will not be permitted in the operating room in the event of a cesarean section because of the risk of viral exposure. The visitor or support person is welcomed to remain just outside of the operating room where the baby will be received after delivery.

Patients will be required to wear masks, preferably their own brought from home, including freshly-washed cloth masks. If a patient does not bring a mask, one will be provided.

Information: www.LVHN.org/motherhoodpartners