Restrictions on maternity care and partners accompanying pregnant women to hospital have caused “unnecessary stress”, while lack of progress and information on this issue is “outrageous”
These are the views of Sinn Féin Galway West TD, Mairead Farrell, and Green Party senator, Pauline O'Reilly, who joined protesters at UHG on Monday. The protest, organised by the Irish Birth Movement, was calling for an easing of maternity restrictions at the hospital.
.
“I have been contacted by so many people who have been affected by restrictions on maternity care. This is a problem in hospitals across the country – not just at UHG,” said Dep Farrell [pictured above]. “Hospitals have not been dealing with this issue and the Minister should therefore take action to address the problem.”
Saolta had announced that some maternity restrictions would ease from April 26, including partners being allowed to attend anomaly scans and to visit St Catherine’s Ward, St Angela’s Ward, and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. However, that announcement brought “a flurry of requests” for clarification, according to Dep Farrell, and so far these have not been answered.
.
“Partners are meant to be able to attend the ‘birth,’ but there has not been clarity on what is included in that, or how ‘established labour’ is defined,” she said. “Some expectant parents have also requested the data from the risk assessments that helped the hospital decide on restrictions. This request has also not been answered.”
"It is simply a postcode lottery in this country around women’s health care" - Sen Pauline O'Reilly
Dep Farrell said that at UHG, partners are only allowed to visit between 7pm and 8pm, and only for a half an hour in the NICU. “This does not go far enough,” she said. “Fathers are not visitors; they are parents who are equally as responsible for their child as the mother is.”
Sen Pauline O’Reilly said it was “outrageous that we continue week after week to have no assurances that women and their partners can have full access to the kind of support that they need from their families”.
She added: “It is simply a postcode lottery in this country around women’s health care and people in the West of Ireland deserve the very same as the people in the east of this country.”
