Wendy Grace Spirit Radio host Wendy Grace has hit out at the “unnecessarily cruel” restrictions on maternity care throughout the pandemic.
The restrictions include the exclusion of fathers from attending pregnancy appointments and the early stages of labour.
Nervous
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Mrs Grace said she is seven months pregnant herself with her third baby, and that as a result she’s nervous about the “arbitrary ways of deciding whether or not your husband or partner can be with you”.
She said the restrictions are indicative of “the attitude towards women in pregnancy”.
Difficult
“I really especially feel for first-time mums and, you know, those who maybe are having a difficult pregnancy,” Mrs Grace said, continuing, “I just think some of the stuff has been so unnecessarily cruel.”
Mrs Grace described the situation one caller to Spirit Radio found herself in a couple of weeks ago:
“I had somebody call up the station a few weeks ago saying how her daughter was pregnant, they knew that the baby had died, so she had to be scheduled to be induced to deliver her now-dead baby.”
Procedure
“In other words, that was a procedure that was happening in a day or two, and her husband could’ve easily gone, gotten a Covid test, hopefully gotten the all-clear and been with her.”
Mrs Grace said “that’s a practical thing” that would have kept everybody safe, but that didn’t happen and the woman “was by herself for the worst moment of her life”.
“For me, where there’s a will, there’s a way and the will hasn’t been there,” Mrs Grace said.
Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan said there is no evidence that the restrictions should remain in place, while in the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he agrees with the CMO that hospitals should lift restrictions on fathers or partners attending maternity wards. However, restrictions remain unchanged in maternity hospitals.