Women tend to think the best time to start a family is when they’re ready, but experts warn against delaying parenthood, says Áilín Quinlan.

MOVE over Prince George, Aoife Belle, Patrick and Sadie. There’s another on the way.

The Government was warned before it passed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act that the law would create problems of the kind that have arisen in the current abortion controversy.

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

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

Criticism of the decision to allow the wife of a member of the Oireachtas committee hearing submissions on abortion to make her own submission has been rejected by her husband.

One of the country’s biggest maternity hospitals, the Rotunda in Dublin, had six cases last year where pregnancies were terminated to save mothers’ lives.

Professor Fionnuala McAuliffe, spokesperson for Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in Ireland:

THE length of time for women in Kerry waiting the re-examination of abnormal smear test results has been “significantly improved”, according to the Health Service Executive.

THOUGH the days leading up to Christmas can be a time of great pressure and some considerable frustration for parents, the vast majority of people consider parenthood a wondrous privilege and one of the — if not THE — defining factors of their lives.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has moved to assure women that it does not intend to compulsorily force new mothers out of maternity hospitals 12 hours after giving birth.

HOSPITAL consultants are this week to re-open talks with Health Minister Mary Harney over her proposals to get more specialists to devote greater time to the public health service.

IRELAND’S newest member of the European Parliament does not believe he has cheated the public by claiming the lucrative seat without facing a public vote.

APPROXIMATELY 200 women with abnormal smear test results, of which 80 are deemed clinically urgent, are waiting up to four months for follow-up examinations at Kerry General Hospital.

A CONFLICT between the Health Minister Mary Harney and the head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) on the question of providing more hospital beds is paralysing the country’s hospitals, the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA) has claimed.

A KERRY-BASED female obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Mary McCaffrey, is expected to be elected president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) at a national council meeting today.

COME to Kerry General Hospital and see how staff struggle to maintain a safe level of hygiene in overcrowded conditions, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney was urged yesterday.

FEARS of a national maternity crisis mounted last night after consultants in Limerick’s only public maternity hospital warned they may be forced to turn women away because they do not have enough staff to ensure safe deliveries.

A MATERNITY unit may not be built at Tralee General Hospital unless almost a third of Kerry women stop going to Cork and Limerick to have their babies, it was claimed yesterday.

SHUTTING down six maternity hospitals outside Dublin would put thousands of women’s lives at risk unless they were replaced by proper midwifery services, a leading obstetrician warned yesterday.