Failure to offer all pregnant women a 20-week foetal anomaly scan will result in 230 missed cases of congenital abnormalities every year with potentially devastating consequences for families.

Jazmine Sands is grateful for the occasional telephone call from Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, checking up on how she is doing, more than eight months after her baby girl passed away.

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 new biobank at University College Cork will play a leading role in improving future health outcomes for mothers and babies.

Cork-based biotechnology company Metabolomic Diagnostics has secured a further $2m (€1.6m) in funding to complete the development of its life-saving screening test for pregnant mothers which it hopes to launch next year.

The danger of giving birth prematurely is twice as likely among first-time mothers who smoke cannabis prior to getting pregnant, a new study has found.

Expectant mums cannot wait to hold their bundle of joy but for many, the highly-anticipated moment can be painful, messy, and far from smooth sailing.

Ground-breaking work on pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening complication of late pregnancy, has earned experts at the Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research (Infant), based at UCC and Cork University Maternity Hospital, an award from the American Heart Association.

Researchers from UCC, in collaboration with Aarhus University in Denmark, have found that the risk of a stillbirth increases by 14% in the next pregnancy after a Caesarean section.

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.

A Cork research centre working on developing a test to predict which mums-to-be are predisposed to giving birth prematurely has attracted investment from a major American multinational.

Set up to commercialise technology developed at UCC, Metabolomic Diagnostics has the global market in its sights as it prepares to launch the world’s first test for pre-eclampsia in early pregnancy, writes Trish Dromey.

MAURA DERRANE is in good company. At 43, the RTÉ presenter is pregnant with her first child.

Some successful EU-funded Irish female scientists:

Programmes designed to entice more women tobecome entrepreneurs have begun to pay dividends for Enterprise Ireland this year which doubled its number of women-led high-potential start-ups.

Jamie Bolger was happy to be at the birth of his twins James and Niamh, seen here six months down the road.

Three companies have announced that they will be creating 240 jobs across the accounting and healthcare sectors.

A Cork inventor has been honoured for developing the first predictive diagnosis for pre-eclampsia in early pregnancy.

A test to identify women likely to give birth more than three weeks before their due date is being worked on by Cork-based researchers.

A new international study has found that a third of Irish women binge drink in early pregnancy.

Expectant mothers in Ireland drink more than pregnant women in Australia, New Zealand, or the UK, and almost one third binge drink in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Cork researchers have developed a screening test which could detect the potentially life-threatening condition pre-eclampsia at around the 15th week of pregnancy.

Arlene Harris discusses the dangers of severe morning sickness.

An Irish professor is leading a European research team that hopes to develop the first effective screening test for a life-threatening pregnancy complication.

GARY BARLOW and his wife Dawn have been devastated by the stillbirth of their baby daughter Poppy.

Mothers-to-be are constantly being advised about what to eat and drink during their pregnancy.

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

WOMEN who kick the smoking habit within 15 weeks of becoming pregnant can reverse the increased risk to smokers of giving birth to an underweight or premature baby.

CORK University Maternity Hospital is playing a leading role in an international study on developing tests that can identify pregnant women at risk of serious pregnancy complications.

THE death rate for babies and toddlers of teenage mothers is 60% higher than that for children of older women, new research shows.