Partners of pregnant women are to be allowed to attend maternity hospitals for 20-week scans and surgical interventions.
The Irish Times reports the HSE has bowed to pressure after a widespread campaign against its ban on the attendance of partners due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The measure was subject to major criticism from couples using maternity services, some of whom described it as inhumane, cruel and heart-breaking.
A petition organised against the restrictions by campaign group, Uplift, has gathered 52,000 signatures.
The HSE is expected to ask maternity facilities on Wednesday to allow the partners of pregnant women to visit for anomaly scans if possible.
The change in advice is understood to come as a result of lower rates of Covid-19 transmission in the community, as well as listening to the views of patients and clinicians.
Harrowing
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín has described the content of emails and letters written by couples distressed by the ban to the Government as “harrowing” and deeply distressing.
“It is clear now that the restrictions around maternity services are inhumane and disproportionate,” he said.
“We must remember that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage in this country. No woman should be left to face this bad news alone, in a hospital corridor without a partner to support her.”
One woman who experienced a miscarriage wrote to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in September to ask why it was acceptable for six people to socialise while partners were not allowed in maternity hospitals.
“I had to sit in a room alone to be told my baby had died. I was sent from this room alone reeling from what I had just heard and [left to] sit on a busy ward corridor sobbing alone," she said.
