A consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology who was placed on administrative leave more than a year ago following the death of a newborn at Cavan General Hospital has still not returned to work.

Five women who suffered major obstetric haemorrhage endured delays ranging from 10-100 minutes accessing theatre, according to a national audit examining the incidence of life-threatening complications in maternity units.

Irish first-time mothers are older than the European average and are having more children than mothers in many parts of the EU, figures released by Eurostat to mark International Day of Families reveal.

A system devised by an Irish doctor that allows hospitals to easily and reliably compare caesarean-section rates and outcomes has been endorsed for worldwide use by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Women who choose to have a baby by caesarean section must be informed they are putting themselves at greater risk of having a stillbirth or ectopic pregnancy in the future.

Expectant mothers who opt for private hospital care are almost 50% more likely to pre-book a caesarean section than mothers who choose to have their baby in the public system, according to a study.

AT THE time of the case that landed him in court, Prof Richard Greene was a senior registrar.

Doctors specialising in care of mothers-to-be have called for greater access during pregnancy to smoking cessation programmes after an audit of baby deaths showed more than a sixth of the women who suffered perinatal loss were smokers.

The first in-depth national audit into the death of babies in the weeks before or after birth has found certain categories of women are more affected by perinatal loss, including the unemployed and those belonging to ethnic minorities.

Severe bleeding, before or after birth, is the most frequent cause of serious medical complications occurring in pregnant women, it has emerged.

TEENAGE mums are more likely to have premature babies, research reveals.

RESEARCH, designed to improve the health of mothers and babies by learning lessons from maternal deaths, is to be undertaken in Ireland as part of a study under way in Britain and the North.

LESSONS of the Neary scandal must be used to drive improvements in clinical services for mothers and babies, the head of the new National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre insisted yesterday.