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Maternity hospital has its busiest year ever  IRELAND’S
biggest maternity hospital has recorded the busiest year in its 181-year
history.
More than 8,000 babies were born at the Coombe in Dublin in 2006 —
including three sets of triplets and one set of quadruplets.
And the figure is expected to exceed 8,500 this year.
A quarter of all babies born were to non-Irish parents and one in 20 mothers
were African.
The report shows that 1,746 of all births in the hospital last year were
by caesarean section.
Two-in-five were elective while the remainder were emergency cases.
Of mothers who gave birth in the hospital last year:
- Almost a third (32.6 per cent) had not planned their pregnancy.
- Almost a fifth (18.2 per cent) were smokers.
- Just over 4.2 per cent were under 20 years of age and 4.3 per cent
were 40 or older.
Sixty mothers were using methadone or other illicit drugs while 472 had
a history of drug use.
More than 100 were victims of domestic violence.
But the report also detailed serious staff shortages.
The operating theatre where 5,645 women underwent procedures last year
at times only had enough staff to deal with one surgical emergency at
a time.
The report said: “As a result 68 women had their emergency surgery
performed simultaneously with another, resulting in a halving of the resources
available to each.”
And the anaesthetic department which provides epidurals and anaesthesia
for caesarean sections said staffing levels out of normal working hours
were dangerously low. |
