Everyone’s lives has been flipped upside down due to the unexpected COVID-19. Everyone is sailing in the same storm, but different boats. There is not one person that is not suffering in this world. With some of these new changes/ rules that have been implemented some are experiencing not only financial hardship, but suffering from emotional hardship as well. 
I’m never an individual to compare or argue ones situation being any worse than another’s, but as a woman (a previously pregnant woman at that), a mother and a wife I am going to introduce a logical argument in hopes to gather everyone to stand up for family/ spouse/ children and parents rights!

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Brittney and I have been married for 4 years to my husband. We currently have one living daughter who is two months old (YES she was born during this pandemic) and we also have a daughter who we unexpectedly lost at birth three years ago. The day we lost our daughter is the very moment family became everything to me because in these times that is all you have left to hang on to and the memories are the only things we take with us when we leave. 
As we see with COVID life can change in the blink of an eye. We never want to take anything for granted and we do not want to miss out on life. We want to be adventurous, have fun and make memories which is normal we are only human. BUT this is my argument... it is NOT by any means right nor logical for a restaurant to be able to open and seat families to share a meal together. It is NOT by any means right nor logical to open a bowling alley for families and children to gather and have a great night out. And it is NOT by any means right nor logical for luxury salons to be open to the public/ bars etc. You see these are all luxuries and not necessities.

A family can be seated in a restaurant and share a meal together, yet a high risk pregnant woman goes into her first/ last ultrasound alone to be sure there’s still  a heartbeat while her spouse/ father/ other parent of that child waits in the car for an hour. And a family can now schedule their bowling night while a mother trucks her sick screaming two month old into an emergency room where she is told the father has to wait out in the car. The father sits in the car for 5 hours only to hear mother and baby will be admitted ALONE. Where were the fathers rights as that baby’s parent as well.  If it takes two to make a child and one parent falls from the equation in most situations our government makes that parent pay child support to HELP SUPPORT the other parent...but why can’t both parents be around for mental/ emotional support is these hard times ?

As a mother who has lost a child I find it CRUCIAL to have emotional support at an OB visit, the mind is not equipped to walk in that room alone. This is not a situation that should ever be taken lightly or looked passed. No not everyone has lost a child, but it could literally happen to anyone at anytime . It’s so important for the second parent to be included and be able to share every single second of every moment in what is suppose to be a magical time. For some parents this could be their first and ONLY pregnancy. As a wife I see how a husband/father can hurt being left out and having no say in being able to see HIS CHILD through the process of pregnancy. And no parent should be turned away from supporting their sick child and wife in a hospital/ emergency room! These are times/memories that could be taken so quickly and never returned
Once this COVID has simmered down or come to an end things will go back to normal and you will be able to go out and have that meal at a restaurant with your family... but for others less fortunate that OB ultrasound may have been the last opportunity they had to see what was soon to be apart of their family. 
Stand up for what is right people, prioritize, speak out for fathers/ spouses/ parents that feel like they are being left behind left in the dark and do not have a voice to be heard when it comes to supporting and being by their family’s side in the most impactful times of their life.