A study of the origins of autism lends support to a controversial treatment using a blood pressure drug, it is claimed.

Couples should be warned of the risks of home births, including the “silent tragedy” of long-term disability for their babies, experts have said.

A Dublin maternity hospital has secured a High Court order letting it withdraw life-sustaining treatment from a severely brain-damaged newborn whose young mother died shortly after delivering him.

Private patients in Ireland are twice as likely to have pre-planned Caesarean sections as women whose treatment is publicly funded, according to new figures that lend support to the theory that some mothers are “too posh to push”.

Why would anyone choose a poorly resourced, poorly supported home birth in Ireland when modern, fully-staffed hospitals are now available to everyone? Here’s why: in Irish hospitals labouring women are treated with something close to disdain.

Katie Price is preparing to give birth early via Caesarean section.

A nine-year old boy with a form of cerebral palsy has secured a €2.2m payment, plus costs, under a settlement of his High Court action over negligence in the circumstances of his birth at Waterford Regional Hospital.

A 31-YEAR-old Mexican housewife has given birth to sextuplets — 12 years after she had quadruplets.

WOMEN with private health insurance are more likely to have a Caesarean section than public patients.

EXPECTANT mothers have a right to be disturbed over the wide variations in the rate of Caesarean sections, induced births and other surgical procedures in maternity units.

IRELAND had the highest birth rate of any of the 27 EU countries in 2008, at 17.0 per 1,000 population, according to statistics released by the Economic and Social Research Unit (ESRI).

DESPITE vital treatment breakthroughs, Irish people are still less likely to beat certain types of cancer or still be alive five years after being diagnosed with the condition than our EU counterparts.

WOMEN who underwent symphysiotomies in this country have called upon obstetricians to concede the procedures should not have taken place over the past century.

The Taliban and the Pakistani government are engaged in a bloody conflict, leaving 2 million displaced people caught in the crossfire of a battle that could determine the future of Pakistan itself. Noel Baker witnessed the effect on the victims

THE Ryan Report revealed sexual and physical abuse on a monstrous scale in Ireland in the labour camps that were the industrial and reform schools. Since its publication, we have come to realise that, without acknowledgement there can be no healing, without redress, no closure.

Ireland’s first sextuplets have been named, it was announced today.

A Tyrone mother who gave birth to sextuplets in just five minutes was recovering in hospital today.

A FORMER nightclub doorman accused of attacking his heavily pregnant girlfriend with a hammer while she was asleep said yesterday she was assaulted in a “terrifying” burglary gone wrong.

A 56-YEAR-OLD woman who gave birth to her triplet granddaughters said she was hoping one of the girls would be home from the hospital by Saturday.

WHEN Pamela Brice looks into the eyes of her beautiful four-year-old daughter, she sees the generosity of blood donors reflected back.

An inquiry into the death of a woman after she gave birth to twins last year has reportedly criticised Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda over its handling of her care.

MORE women in Ireland are opting for newer, long-acting contraception instead of female sterilisation, a study has shown.

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.

SINCE she finished 12th at the 20k walk world championships is Paris in 2003, life has changed dramatically for Olive Loughnane.

A US woman pleaded guilty yesterday to trying to cut a foetus from her neighbour’s womb.

The percentage of babies delivered by Caesarean section increased from 20% to 24% between 1999 and 2003, according to figures published today by the ESRI.

ONE-IN-FOUR births in Ireland are delivered via Caesarean section, new figures show.

IN recent weeks I have read and heard many discussions on our maternity services, which are in a deplorable condition.

MEET the oldest mother of newborns in the world — Maria Del Carmen Bousada De Lara.

A SPANIARD has become the world’s oldest mother after giving birth to twin sons.

Almost two thirds of women who have given birth in recent years believe maternity and support services need to be improved, according to a survey published this morning.

Japan’s Princess Kiko has developed complications with her pregnancy and may have to give birth to her third child by Caesarean section, Kyodo News agency reported.

A support group for mothers who undergo Caesarean sections has reportedly claimed that increasing numbers of women are suffering mental health problems as a result of the procedure.

OBESITY related complications are increasingly affecting Irish births, the master of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin Dr Michael Geary has warned.

THE number of women having Caesarean sections in Ireland has increased by a staggering 81% since 1991, leading midwives to claim that many mothers are enduring risky surgery when it is not medically necessary.

Serious questions must be asked about the massive rise of 80.8% in the number of Caesarean sections performed between 1992 and 2001.

DAVID and Victoria Beckham were last night celebrating the birth of their third “gorgeous” son, but have baffled many in Spain by naming him Cruz.

The 66-year-old mother, believed to be the oldest woman to give birth, dismissed concerns that she is too old to rear the child and said today that the baby was her mission in life.

A 66-YEAR-OLD Romanian woman yesterday became the world’s oldest recorded mother after giving birth to a baby girl.

BIRTHS to single mothers almost doubled in the decade leading up to 2000, figures released today reveal.

On April 22, 2004, we posted up a story on breakingnews.ie about Caesarean section births in which Catherine Zeta Jones was mentioned as one celebrity who had had a baby by Caesarean section.

A West Bank Jewish settler gave birth today, hours after she was widowed when Palestinian gunmen shot at the car she and her husband were travelling in.

India confirmed its first case of Sars today, a man who contracted the deadly virus after visiting Hong Kong and Singapore.

European scientists have confirmed the identity of the Sars virus in a key step towards finding drugs to fight it, but anxiety in Hong Kong was unabated today as a doctor said two of the three babies born to Sars-infected mothers were in a critical condition.