The Midwives Association of Ireland has reacted to the Maternity Overview Report from HIQA and its comments on the National Maternity Strategy.

New research has asked whether a public health campaign may be needed to inform women that deferring childbirth until after the age of 30 may increase the chances of birth interventions such as Caesarian section delivery.

Safer maternity care, better supports and increased staffing levels are needed to tackle a “very serious gender discrimination” in health services.

The assumption that vaginal delivery is always to be preferred must end and a more patient centred approach adopted, writes Doireann O’Mahony.

Premature babies, or ‘preemies’ as they’re affectionately called in maternity units, face a tough fight but are well cared for by neonatal staff across the country. Though their parents run a gamut of emotions, writes Kelly O’Brien

A High Court judge has overturned an emergency care order under which a day-old baby was forcibly removed from his mother at a maternity hospital due to serious concerns of risk to his health and life if she left there with him.

The Master of the Rotunda is warning babies face serious health risks from overcrowding unless urgent action is taken to relieve the Dublin hospital's cramped conditions.

We are writing in response to the article, ‘Fewer than 1% of women had ‘practically perfect births’ in a two-year study’, which appeared online (www.irishexaminer.com, May 10).

As research shows pregnant women often feel frumpy, a maternity fashion expert explains how to look good while you’re expecting.

The rollout of a €33m national intergrated laboratory information system in 43 public hospitals has been delayed by at least a year.

There is no truth in Gearóid Duffy’s claim that ‘Ireland, and other countries without abortion, have consistently had the best maternity outcomes in the world’ (Irish Examiner, September 19).

The national rollout of a €35m IT system designed to improve care for mothers and babies has been put on hold until a digital link is in place that will allow electronic sharing of data between maternity hospitals and GPs.

Suzanne Harrington meets the Irish midwife working at London’s exclusive five-star maternity hospital.

Delayed diagnoses, faulty medical devices, missed medication, wrong medical records applied to patients — all feature among the incidents in our hospitals that led to the State paying out €177m in damages between 2010 and 2014.

Medicine, maternity, surgery, disability, and older persons were the most common services in our hospitals in which clinical incidents were identified in a five-year look-back by the State Claims Agency.

Midwife-led care which allows normal labours to take their own course are as safe, and cheaper, than consultant-led care, writes Victoria White.

The difficulties that public patients have in accessing 20-week foetal anomaly scans, combined with unfeasibly large gynaecology waiting lists, bolster the case for independent governance of Cork University Maternity Hospital.

A year after the launch of the first National Maternity Strategy, key posts remain unfilled in the office set up to drive its implementation.

Overcrowding in the State’s busiest maternity hospital left vulnerable newborns at an increased risk of infection, it has emerged.

IT seems extraordinary that this is the first time that Ireland will have a national maternity system that is actually focused on the mother.

The HSE says contingency plans are in place to ensure sick babies have a supply of intravenous food this weekend.

The Dail's Health Committee is discussing how best to meet future needs of maternity services.

Barely half of women giving birth in Irish maternity hospitals breastfeed at birth and one-third of these give up within a fortnight.

Sales of maternity trousers that allow Muslim women in Malaysia to cover up while giving birth have surged, despite triggering fierce criticism and fears of putting the lives of women at risk during childbirth.

Working parents could get six months paid maternity leave in the first year after their child is born in addition to maternity benefit.

Overcrowding the main issue behind plan as ministers deny relocations are a political stroke.

The Department of Health plans to relocate the three Dublin Maternity hospitals following a review of services.

The Director General of the HSE has said that more staff at Portlaoise Hospital could face disciplinary hearings.

A mother who's baby girl died at Portlaoise hospital has said that current HSE management cannot be trusted to implement the changes required from a HIQA investigation into the maternity unit there.

A Government TD has accused the HSE of a "systematic intentional cover up" over maternity services at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

The health minister has confirmed that the closure of small maternity units is being considered.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar said that a full inquiry by HIQA into maternity services at Cavan General Hospital is not warranted.

A charity claims women in Ireland are almost three times as likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth as those in Norway.

The Coombe Hospital in Dublin is to take over the running of maternity services at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

The Irish arm of maternity product retailer Mothercare returned to an operating profit last year in spite of revenues declining.

The review of the maternity services at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, Co Laois, will start in the coming weeks and is expected to take up to five months.