https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/covid-19-is-no-reason-to-abandon-pregnant-people/

The unfortunate reality of the coronavirus pandemic is that it has shown how unprepared and underfunded the public health infrastructure in the U.S. is to address the basic needs of our citizens. As health care workers adapt to dwindling personal protective equipment and exponential cases of the virus, we are forced to witness difficult decisions being made that could, and should, have been prevented. One consequence of being unprepared is the unintended repercussions from new rules that are being adopted in many places for laboring and birthing people. Many hospitals in New York City, described as the epicenter of the disease caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the U.S., have already stated that doulas or spouses cannot be present during labor or birth because of the virus. The World Health Organization, however, does not recommend this practice in its COVID-19 guidelines. Nor do these rules comply with other recent recommendations.

In the U.S., childbirth is the number-one reason people are admitted to the hospital. Additionally, in the midst of a black maternal health crisis, New York has been highlighted as having a maternal morbidity rate for black women that was 12 times higher than it was for white women between 2006 and 2010. In light of these facts, the recent decision of some of the city’s hospitals should raise concern about how the barring of doulas and spouses may disproportionately affect populations, such as black women, who are already vulnerable to disbelief and mistreatment by hospital staff—a situation that could potentially worsen without anyone there to advocate for them.