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Throughout the pandemic, restrictions have been imposed on expectant mothers and their partners. Shutterstock/EmiliaUngur

Healthcare workers being vaccinated 'will be taken into consideration' in reviewing maternity hospital restrictions

The easing of maternity hospital restrictions was not included in the government’s roadmap for reopening the country.

THE FACT THE majority of healthcare workers are vaccinated against Covid-19 “will be taken into consideration” in determining restrictions at maternity hospitals, according to the HSE. 

Social Democrat TD Holly Cairns said this week that the current maternity hospital guidelines were set in September.

With the vaccination of frontline healthcare workers, the situation has changed significantly, she told the Dáil.

 ”It seems like the policy is for the government to just wash its hands of it. Over three months ago the UK changed their policy to allow expectant mothers to have someone with them at all stages of their maternity journey. It is unfathomable, that this wasn’t addressed this week along with other things like sports,” she told Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.

The refusal to lift a ban preventing partners of expectant mothers from attending scans and early labour was also described as “incomprehensible” by the Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy.

Throughout the pandemic, restrictions have been imposed on expectant mothers and their partners. 

Partners were not allowed to attend the 20-week anatomy scan for most of 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions before the position was reversed by many hospitals as cased numbers eased. Partners were also only allowed attend the delivery room during the late stages of labour and during the birth.

Visiting by partners were allowed in some hospitals for short periods of time in the days after the birth, but others did not allow any visits

Cairns told the Dáil that back in September the Taoiseach acknowledged that a national approach should be taken in relation to this. “Of course it should never have been a geographical lottery,” she said.

The easing of maternity hospital restrictions was not included in the government’s roadmap for reopening the country.

HSE

The HSE told The Journal that each maternity unit will be risk assessing the current arrangements and will advise on any necessary changes based on each maternity hospital/units circumstances locally.

“As healthcare workers complete their vaccination schedule this will be taken into consideration in determining local measures,” the HSE said.

“Equally, local considerations will have to assess the newly reported risks to the baby should the mother be unfortunate to contract Covid-19.

“We appreciate the patience shown by families as we work through these difficult months, providing high quality maternity and infant care and keeping our patients and services safe from Covid-19,” the statement concluded.

Hundreds of new or expecting parents wrote to the Minister of Health last year appealing for restrictions at maternity hospitals to be lifted.

Emotional and angry emails seen by TheJournal.ie detail how women were left terrified of going through labour alone, without their partners. 

Others spoke about the harrowing stories of being told that they had had a miscarriage when they were sitting alone in a maternity hospital, with their partners left in car parks.

In one email, one expectant mother detailed “one of the most upsetting moments of my life”.

Updates on maternity hospital restrictions during the pandemic can be found here.

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    Mute james spice
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 5:53 PM

    Not looking to offend those who’s birth partners are not part of their household. But the reality is most expecting mothers and their birth partners or expecting fathers are living in the same house. It doesn’t make sense. Social distancing wouldn’t be difficult with just the birth partners in attendance.

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    Mute Dobby Dooo Dooo
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    Apr 3rd 2021, 12:25 AM

    @james spice: I really empathise with this situation but just in response to your comment, I know of families where just one person tested positive to covid and others tested negative.

    For anyone who ever attended the Rotunda pre-pandemic, it’s constantly jam packed in OPD to the degree that heavily pregnant women cannot sit down as there aren’t enough seats (or gentlemen it seems!)

    While it’s horrific that partners aren’t allowed in, putting already high risk people at a higher risk would be negligent. But let’s hope restrictions will ease soon.

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    Mute james spice
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    Apr 3rd 2021, 6:33 AM

    @Dobby Dooo Dooo: I get you, I mean everyone and the neighbors dog want to come in and have a look at the baby. But they’re not allowing this scenario. And how often do you actually get positive and negative cases from the same household, really? How does the NHS manage in the middle of London? I just don’t think the risk justifies it at all. I think the level of care suffers as a result as mums can need someone there to facilitate. Mums have to wait a good while for their appointment, the more people waiting around is an issue alright. But why can’t the partner just wait out in the car and nip in at the last minute? All going well, you’re not in there long. *not complaining about wait times btw, the level of care you get (for free!) in maternity hospitals in Ireland is fantastic!*

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    Mute Aaron92utd
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 5:52 PM

    Why arent all healthcare workers vaccinated first?if for some unknown reason the virus spiked beyond control their the nations last line of defence. If their gone were gone. I bet half the beacon hospitals staff arent vaccinated.!

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    Mute Martin Galvin
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 6:45 PM

    @Aaron92utd: There are always plenty of ‘spares’ for admin management and staff, and their families working from home …. Farcical set-up.

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    Mute Ruby
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 5:58 PM

    I thought healthcare workers were all vaccinated at this point? What drivel are they coming out with now? Restrictions on maternity hospitals are ridiculous at this point.

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    Mute Bidser
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 6:15 PM

    @Ruby: No Ruby all healthcare workers are not vaccinated unfortunately..

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 6:26 PM

    @Ruby: Not all healthcare workers took up the vaccine offer

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    Mute Gerard Carthy
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 7:42 PM

    Surely two cohabitations humans are one unit from an epidemiological perspective. If not, we may have gotten the extremely infectious bit wrong.

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    Mute Grainne O'Leary
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    Apr 3rd 2021, 7:43 AM

    This is a disgrace. The government have announced when 15 people can play a contact sport together yet no update on when a 2nd people can attend the birth of a new life! The priorities are all wrong. I would have thought the minister for health would at least been able to influence this!

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    Mute ChronicAnxiety
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 8:54 PM

    If a covid positive birth partner gives it to another patient, the HSE will be sued.

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    Mute Sam Glynn
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    Apr 2nd 2021, 11:30 PM

    @ChronicAnxiety: i was tested when went in & less than two hours later i was given results….negative, i dont see how partners cant get same. In the labour suite, both myself and my husband were left on our own at lot at the early stages too. Now i was lucky as from start to finish my husband was allowed to be with me last december and got to stay few hours after the birth. And for the 3 days i was in afterwards , he would visit me from 6-9 every evening after work. I was based in galway. I did miss him for all the scans, they wrre very big moments we would of loved to have shared together, especially if we were worried at any point.

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