A maternity group, which met with the HSE on Wednesday, says there is no definitive plan to lift remaining restrictions on hospitals.
Campaigners from Better Maternity Care had hoped restrictions would be lifted for partners in hospitals around the country.
Linda Kelly, who was at the meeting, told The Hard Shoulder there was nothing concrete.
"We don't have any definitive plan from the HSE yet as to when restrictions on partners accessing antenatal appointments is going to end.
"That's really disappointing for us.
"We've had this on the agenda with the HSE since the end of last year; they know that it's the last aspect of maternity care that we need to look at.
"In light of what the NPHET letter says, and in light of what happened around restrictions, we were really hopeful that we'd be discussing dates and timelines and plans today - maybe even looking at a draft guidance.
"And that didn't happen unfortunately."
But she says the plan is to keep moving forward.
"What I would say is that the plan is still to move ahead, and to lift the restrictions, but it's going to be on a much slower timeline than women and their families want and expect".
'Damaged trust'
NPHET says the decision to lift restrictions is up to each individual hospital.
This is something Linda says wasn't even discussed at the meeting.
"We didn't even get into that level of detail.
"It was actually around there's a huge number of healthcare facilities that AMRIC [Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control]... they're working through a series of guidelines now.
"And that's going to take a little bit of time for them to do that".
And she says trust has to be rebuilt between women and maternity services.
"One of the things that we talked about in the meeting today is that these restrictions have really damaged the trust between women and their families and the maternity settings.
"And it's really, really important as we move out of this pandemic that that trust is rebuilt.
"This is a really important service - it's an essential healthcare service that runs every single day of the year - that's going to continue to run for years on end.
"And it's really important that actually women start to feel safe again in maternity settings - that they feel supported by their partner, and that it's not a choice between their partner and accessing care".
