This is not a stork.

This is not a stork. It is a heron. Yesterday the heron that lives in Stephens Green was standing at the edge of the lake and I was able to get very close to it. It is raggedy, urban, beautiful and trying to get by despite the constraints imposed on it by its environment. The treatment of women in maternity services in Ireland during the Covid-19 pandemic is inhumane, scientifically and morally unjustifiable, and should have been changed long ago. If in euphemistic tradition the stork brings a baby, then this is also not a stork. Since the start of the pandemic, pregnant people have generally only been allowed to have their partners with them in the hospital for the final stages of labour and the birth itself. They have not been allowed to have partners present for any ante-natal appointments, including the 20 week 'anomaly' scan, which checks for major problems with the baby's development. If the pregnant woman is in hospital for induction, which can last for 2 days or more before the birth, they are not allowed to have their partner with them. In early labout, before they go to the labour ward or delivery suite, their partner cannot be present. The partner usually has to leave shortly after the birth. Then the partner is able to visit for only 2 hours a day in the post-natal ward after the birth. These restrictions have not been consistent across the 19 maternity hospitals and units in Ireland. At various points during the pandemic, some hospitals have allowed partners to be present more or for longer or at certain appointments; other units have refused to allow partners even to be present at the birth itself. These restrictions are impossible to justify in terms of Covid risks to pregnant people, foetuses, babies or maternity staff. The partner is almost universally an extremely close contact living with the pregnant woman, and their presence in the hospital does not increase her Covid risk. Similarly the partner poses the same risk to staff as the woman herself, and usually less, because while staff must of necessity be in close contact with the woman to care for her and deliver the baby, they do not have to have at all as close contact with her partner. While in most other settings a household is the unit examined, because all members of a household are considered to share their risks, in this situation where the pregnant person and their partner are usually an extremely closeknit household, they are considered separately. The results are barbaric and make no sense. There is no attention paid to the negative impacts on women and babies of not having their partner present. Or to the horror of being alone in hospital if there is bad news, potentially the worst news, about their baby. No-one mentions the joy the women miss out on sharing with their partners. Even more ignored is that partners are being denied sharing in these momentous experiences, including, in some cases, denied the experience of being present at the birth of their child. Maternity staff are in most cases doing an incredible job under enormous pressure and I have nothing but admiration for them. While health care and services in almost every other area have been radically scaled back during the pandemic, maternity services cannot be reduced. People are still pregnant and still having babies, in the same numbers as ever, and that cannot be delayed or postponed or cancelled until after the pandemic. Maternity staff deserve to be lauded and proper measures put in place to protect them and ensure services are not compromised. But these restrictions on partners are not doing that. Instead they are doing an enormous injustice to pregnant people, their babies and their partners. They are causing immense harm that will have generational impacts. And they are not keeping pregnant women, babies or maternity staff safe. This has to change. I like herons. It was wonderful to see this one up close. But it is not a stork. And tens of thousands of pregnant women and babies need their storks, right now.