Rotunda sees huge increase in births

THE Rotunda Hospital has witnessed the “busiest month” in its 263-year history, with 857 babies born in just four weeks at a time when the country’s maternity services are struggling to cope with soaring birth rates.

The hospital’s latest board minutes have confirmed that the Rotunda is struggling to cope with the huge birth rate caused by a 50% rise in the number of first-time mothers and a significant increase in c-section operations.

According to the September minutes, July was the hospital’s “busiest month on record”, with 857 births at the hospital in just four weeks, the highest in the facility’s history.

And while the figures for autumn were expected to drop back to 2007 levels — which were 14% higher than 2006 — the board minutes further noted that “deliveries in December are estimated at 800”, with the total 2008 birth rate set to be 5% higher than last year and 19% more than 2006.

In the first six months of 2008, the Rotunda witnessed 4,000 deliveries, a figure which has exceeded expectations and is set to rise to 8,800 by the end of the year — compared with the 8,400 births seen in 2007 and the 7,128 births in 2006.

And coming on the back of last week’s Irish Examiner report that Cork University Maternity Hospital is set to overstep its capacity by about 2,000 births this year — despite being opened just a year and a half ago at a cost of €75 million — the rising Rotunda births highlight ongoing difficulties in the country’s maternity service. “The maternity services in Ireland are in crisis at the moment, especially the three hospitals in Dublin and the one in Limerick,” warned Labour health spokeswoman Jan O Sullivan.

“There is severe pressure on the service. Obviously maternity hospitals can’t turn people away, but there is a genuine concern that the hospitals cannot deliver the service that they have to deliver.

“A recent study did recommend that each of the three maternity hospitals in Dublin have grounds built on nearby general hospitals to lessen the pressure. We would absolutely agree with that.

“There is going to have to be a focus on greater resources in terms of nursing staff... extra maternity services and beds.

“It is one of those things that they can’t just cut or ignore, children have to be born safely,” she said.

The high-point birth rate at the Rotunda came about a year after the HSE described the delivery level at the hospital as an “exceptional demand” and being “well beyond all projections of growth rate”.