The coronavirus outbreak has seen new mothers giving birth without the level of support they may normally expect from their partners.
New restrictions mean women are only allow one visitor – and only when they are in labour or called for a caesarean section.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Wicklow mother Natasha Philpott said everyone at Holles Street hospital was “really supportive” as she was preparing to give birth to her new baby daughter Paige this week.
“I think everyone has just banded together,” she said. “We are all in exactly the same boat here.”
“We all have no visitors or anything so all the staff here and everything have just been amazing.”
She said it was “tough” giving birth without her husband by her side, but Paige is doing “really well” and has been introduced to her father and sister through video calls.
“I have a little girl at home so, myself and my husband, we made the decision for him not to come in at all because we would be putting other people at risk if they had to mind her and then he had to come in here and everything,” she said.
“So, it was just literally drop me to the door and, ‘I’ll see you in a few days with our new baby.’”
It is not the first time she has hit the headlines with a new birth – after her first daughter Emily Rose became the third baby born in 2019 at 27 seconds past midnight on New Year’s Day.
Speaking to Shane Coleman this morning, she insisted the dramatic deliveries are not planned.
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