It’s a stressful time to be pregnant.

But after months of expectant mothers being forced to attend pregnancy scans alone during the pandemic, a new app is helping to safely bring partners back into appointments at Cork University Maternity Hospital.

Following a soft launch two weeks ago, YellowSchedule’s Intelligent Patient Scheduling Solution allows pregnant women and their partners to screen online prior to their 20-week anomaly scan.

Here’s how it works: YellowSchedule sends an SMS message to expectant mothers with upcoming 20-week scans, inviting them to nominate a partner to attend.

Both the woman and her nominated companion receive a Covid-19 screening questionnaire shortly before the upcoming appointment. This enables CUMH to identify any women with risk factors and channel them appropriately through the dedicated COVID pathway at the hospital. It also prevents any nominated visitors to the hospital who may have COVID-19 risk factors from presenting on-site.

CUMH is also reintroducing visits post-delivery; YellowSchedule will automatically send an SMS to the nominated partner once the mother has been admitted as an in-patient enabling them to schedule post-delivery visits. The visitor will screen online for Covid-19 prior to arrival and check-in via QR code at the check-in kiosk at the entrance to the hospital. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic has been especially hard on expecting couples, aside from the added stress around Covid-19 itself, pregnancy is a challenging time physically and emotionally,” said Martina Skelly, CEO of Yellow Schedule.

“It’s fantastic to see maternity units start to open up access to scans and visits to support partners. It was clear from working with the project team at CUMH that their focus has been on getting partners back into the hospital in a secure, simple to use and efficient way, that would be easy for them to manage and not add more stress during an already stressful time.”