A hospital in Britain has banned visitors from cooing over newborn babies and asking mothers questions. The Calderdale Royal Hospital in the town of Halifax said its decision was to protect the human rights of newborn babies and to reduce the risk of infection. Debbie Lawson, the hospital’s spokeswoman, told reporters. Cooing should be a thing of the past. These are little people with the same rights as you or me. She added: “Infection control was also a key part of the message as the unit deals with very small babies with very vulnerable immune systems.”
Politicians and maternity experts have strongly criticized the new “safeguards”. The British government’s representative for the area, Linda Riordan, said the measures were totally crazy. She told the local Halifax Courier newspaper it was the mother’s decision to decide who could coo at her new baby. New mothers at the hospital said they were astonished that visitors could not ask questions about their babies or their own health. A British parenting charity, the National Childbirth Trust, said the move was totally unnecessary.