100 signatures reached
To: The Minister for Health, the Health Service Executive (HSE), and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health
Protect Choice and Continuity in Irish Maternity Care
We call on the Government to maintain access to the private maternity care pathway within the Irish maternity system.
Why is this important?
We believe women should retain meaningful choice in how they receive care during pregnancy and birth, and that maternity care options should be enhanced, not restricted, by healthcare reforms.
We fully support and strongly endorse major investment in the public maternity care system, and we want to see it developed to the highest possible standard, with meaningful choice across care pathways, including consultant-led care, midwifery-led care, and community-based care. However, this must be achieved by strengthening and expanding services, not by removing existing options, particularly where there is no adequate or appropriate alternative available to replace the current private care pathway.
Thousands of pregnant women choose private maternity care for a range of personal reasons. For many, the key reason is the guarantee of continuity of care: having a chosen consultant care for them from the first antenatal appointment through to delivery and postnatal follow-up. This pathway is deeply significant because it provides:
We fully support and strongly endorse major investment in the public maternity care system, and we want to see it developed to the highest possible standard, with meaningful choice across care pathways, including consultant-led care, midwifery-led care, and community-based care. However, this must be achieved by strengthening and expanding services, not by removing existing options, particularly where there is no adequate or appropriate alternative available to replace the current private care pathway.
Thousands of pregnant women choose private maternity care for a range of personal reasons. For many, the key reason is the guarantee of continuity of care: having a chosen consultant care for them from the first antenatal appointment through to delivery and postnatal follow-up. This pathway is deeply significant because it provides:
- Tailored, personalised care: Women with specific physical or emotional needs, including those with past traumatic experiences, require care that reflects and responds to their circumstances.
- Trust and peace of mind: Being attended by a familiar consultant who understands a woman's history provides reassurance during what is often the most significant medical event of her life to date.
Most women choose this care pathway and make financial sacrifices to do so because an equivalent level of care is not available to them within the public system.
Not every woman chooses this option. But every woman should have the right to.
Yet under current Sláintecare reforms, access to the private maternity care pathway is being phased out.
Maternity care is disproportionately affected by Sláintecare policy, and women are the only group directly impacted in this way. Unlike other areas of healthcare, where private and public options exist side by side, maternity care in Ireland operates within the public hospital system, as there are no private maternity hospitals. Removing private care from public hospitals removes access to the private maternity care pathway entirely.
This creates a clear structural inequity: choice is being reduced in a female-only area of healthcare, while private options remain available in other medical specialties.
We call on the Government to maintain access to the private maternity care pathway within the maternity care system by refraining from removing private maternity care access within public maternity hospitals.
Not every woman chooses this option. But every woman should have the right to.
Yet under current Sláintecare reforms, access to the private maternity care pathway is being phased out.
Maternity care is disproportionately affected by Sláintecare policy, and women are the only group directly impacted in this way. Unlike other areas of healthcare, where private and public options exist side by side, maternity care in Ireland operates within the public hospital system, as there are no private maternity hospitals. Removing private care from public hospitals removes access to the private maternity care pathway entirely.
This creates a clear structural inequity: choice is being reduced in a female-only area of healthcare, while private options remain available in other medical specialties.
We call on the Government to maintain access to the private maternity care pathway within the maternity care system by refraining from removing private maternity care access within public maternity hospitals.