Partners of pregnant women will remain excluded in some hospitals

Partners of pregnant women will continue to be excluded from scans and preterm labor in some regions, as not all hospitals will be able to include them in new government plans.

Pregnant women have been subject to a “zip code lottery” of restrictions since Covid-19 arrived, although the government admitted that “local circumstances” may cause different visitor policies to continue in some hospitals.

Plans to be announced this week will aim to introduce guidelines at the national level, but a spokesperson for Taoiseach Micheál Martin said an end to regional differences cannot be fully guaranteed, which has seen different rules depending on which hospital one attends woman.

Dr. Peter McKenna, clinical director of the National Women’s and Children’s Health Program, is working on guidelines for maternity hospitals across the country.

The spokesperson added that the document would seek to ensure a consistent national approach to visitor restrictions in maternity hospitals “to the extent possible and taking due account of local circumstances.”

Respond to inquiries from Irish Examiner, the government has admitted that it may not be able to end the different maternity restrictions in hospitals while striving to come up with standardized guidelines.

About 30,000 babies have been born in Ireland since the pandemic broke out in March.

Now there are serious concerns that the various restrictions in maternity hospitals are having a massive impact on the mental health of women and their partners.

Calling for restrictions to be eased, which have led some women to learn of the loss of a child without the support of their partner, Social Democrat TD Holly Cairns criticized the lack of political will to address the problem.

Ms Cairns said that great emphasis has been placed on the economic and social impacts of the pandemic, but that the mental health of pregnant women and their partners has not been considered.

Hundreds of women and their partners have contacted Cork South West TD with heartbreaking stories since he raised the issue at the Dáil last week.

“It’s just heartbreaking. I think people have a right to be there for the birth of their child,” Ms. Cairns said.

Ms Cairns said the government has gone to great lengths to reopen pubs and allow people to attend sporting events, but there are no standard guidelines for maternity services yet, more than six months after the pandemic hit.

Obviously you have to take time to write the guidelines, but every day that they are not followed is too long a day for women who have to go through this alone.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ronan Glynn, the acting medical director, warned that Covid-19 is now spreading “disproportionately” among young people.

A total of 334 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed Tuesday night, 174 of which were in Dublin.

Dr Glynn said: “Despite representing only a quarter of the population, 15- and 34-year-olds account for 40% of Covid-19 cases in the past two months.”

While he said this is not surprising as young people are more likely to move in the community, he asked that they now set an example.

Moreover, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is restricting his movements after his French counterpart tested positive for Covid-19.

Donohoe and Bruno Le Maire attended a Eurogroup meeting in Berlin on September 11.