Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today I want to talk about facilities provided for postnatal care for women in Ireland. I was contacted yesterday by a lady in my area who has a young infant and who has found it most difficult in the aftermath of the birth to have a social activity available to her or social circle of people in a similar situation. I am aware programmes in other European countries where they set up groups of women coming from the same maternity hospital and who live in the same area. They are connected in together so they can socialise together, they can share their experiences and they can rely on one another. They can have the benefit of on another's experiences, both positive and negative.

I am aware of a similar scheme in the UK. My sister had her babies there and she was involved in the National Childbirth Trust. They just connect women in a postnatal environment to allow them a social outlet. It connects them in to people who are in the same situation in the same area. I am not aware of any such scheme in this country. As was brought to my attention yesterday, the difficulty for young parents and new parents coming out with perhaps a first child is that it can be quite isolating for them when their partner, if they have one, is not in the house all day.

There was a real opportunity there for the HSE and the Minister for Health to put in place a scheme that facilitates just such a group as those that exist in other European jurisdictions. Perhaps we could consider bringing the Minister into the House to examine if such a scheme could be put in place. I do not believe it would be terribly costly: it is organisational rather than resource intensive. It would provide for new parents in that space an outlet that would be very encouraging for them and facilitative of them.