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Pregnancy

09th Jul 2022

Does more need to be done about the lack of parking at maternity hospitals?

Melissa Carton

Will this ever be addressed?

Over the years expectant mums have spoken out about how they are paying a fortune for parking spaces for maternity hospital visits.

Often these parking spaces can be nowhere near the hospital that they are attending.

This is due to the fact that there is little to no parking at the maternity hospital itself.

I was lucky enough not to have to worry about parking as I lived across the road from the maternity hospital during both of my pregnancies.

On the other hand relatives of mine would have to park in my driveway when they were attending their appointments as there was never any room in the hospital car park.

As stressful as this is for those attending appointments it is even more so for those in the early stages of labour.

I’ve known of instances where husbands or partners have had to drop off the mum-to-be and then circle for ages looking for parking.

Not an ideal situation for anyone involved.

A couple of years ago I wrote about how dire the situation has become at Crumlin Children’s Hospital with many residents offering their driveways for rent to help aid the parents attending the hospital.

Even since writing that piece the problem still prevails with the lack of parking still causing issues for parents trying to attend appointments with their children.

I also spoke about my concern that the same will happen with the new children’s hospital as it is located next to another busy hospital, James.

It’s difficult to know how the situation can be solved for city-based hospitals where land to expand is harder to come by.

Until it is remedied many more pregnant women will have to face the same difficulties when it comes to attending appointments at busy maternity hospitals.