A local mother says her husband may have to wait in a hospital car park for days so he won’t miss his child’s birth.
Leona Tynan is an expectant Carlow mother who has to be induced into labour at St Luke’s Hospital due to a blood disorder.
Due to visitor restrictions at the Kilkenny hospital, she must wait until her labour is fully underway and she’s been moved to the delivery suite before her partner Garth is allowed to enter the ward.
She says Garth will be on standby in the car park indefinitely, as it’s impossible to predict how long her labour will take:
“Until I’m ready to go to the delivery suite, which is usually between 4 to 6 centimetres or when your waters have gone, Garth won’t be allowed to be there. So he will have to wait in the car outside. The thing is I could go over 24 hours, or I could go in 4 [hours]. There’s just absolutely no way to know.”