Irene Long looks at the many benefits that come with exercising during pregnancy.

Planning permission has been granted to build the new National Maternity Hospital on the campus of St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.

Money owed by the Sisters of Charity to the redress scheme did not feature in discussions to move the National Maternity Hospital to the St Vincent’s Hospital campus, it has emerged.

The State’s investment in the proposed €300m national maternity hospital will be protected and it will be free of religious interference, according to Health Minister Simon Harris.

A woman who claimed she felt the scalpel as it cut into her during a caesarean section under local anaesthetic to deliver her baby has settled her High Court action against the National Maternity Hospital, Holles St, Dublin.

The building that houses the National Maternity Hospital, at Holles Street, on Dublin’s Georgian Mile, will be sold.

Health Minister Simon Harris has said there is no “plan B” if a row over the new National Maternity Hospital is not resolved.

An investigation has been launched following after a pregnant woman died last month at Dublin’s Holles Street Hospital whilst undergoing emergency surgeryat Holles Street Hospital in Dublin last month.

Labour Relations Commission chairman Kieran Mulvey is to be drafted in to mediate a dispute between St Vincent’s Hospital and The National Maternity Hospital.

A girl with severe cerebral palsy who has already secured €3.3m in settlement of her High Court action for negligence during her birth at the National Maternity Hospital is to get another €1m towards her care needs for the next three years.

The row between the National Maternity Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital over their co-location plans has deepened after a top obstetrician said the latter’s insistence on giving its Catholic-ethos board control over its new neighbour made no sense.

Ireland's first baby of the New Year took nearly two days to arrive, his proud mother has revealed.

THE best piece of advice I got before we had our first born, Fionn, was given to me by a well-known DJ as we sat over coffee.

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).

The make-up of a review team to examine at least 12 cases of questionable care of newborns at Portiuncula Hospital which left some babies dead and others brain damaged has been announced.

The Government has ramped up the pressure on doctors over health service reform plans by insisting free GP care for children under six and the elderly will be introduced by summer.

There could well be birthday candles on the Christmas cake in Rachel Harte’s house from now on — as a happy reminder of the dramatic roadside birth of her baby girl Sienna on Christmas Day.

An independent expert has suggested that a young mother who died in childbirth after suffering major bleeding may have had a toxic reaction to drugs administered as doctors tried to save her, an inquest has heard.

One of Ireland’s leading maternity experts has no faith in the HSE to reform the system or fill dangerous staffing gaps in the wake of Savita Halappanavar’s death.

The Department of Health has said a termination carried out at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles St did not take place under Ireland's new abortion regime.

A campaign group has called for compensation of between €250,000 and €450,000 for women injured as a result of their pelvises being broken in “barbaric” surgical procedures during childbirth.

The National Maternity Hospital, which accepts referrals of women and infants from all over the country, is to relocate to the St Vincent’s University Hospital campus in Dublin within the next five years.

Premature babies born at a maternity hospital were put at needless “clinical risk” because of serious building problems linked to a delayed upgrade of the facility.

Hospitals with a Catholic ethos have been told they must abide by the law of the land, as ministers hit back at claims that proposed abortion legislation amountedto a denial of religious freedom.

The sheer agony of the pain suffered by 1,500 Irish women who were subjected to a symphysiotomy in hospitals between 1944 and 1992 never dulls with each retelling of a personal story, they say.

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.

The competitive edge to delivering babies is never more to the fore than New Year’s Eve when maternity units around the country vie for the title of “first baby”.

The head of one of the country’s leading maternity hospitals has warned that HSE cutbacks are putting expectant mothers’ lives at risk, following the worst official annual death rate in a decade.

Legislation over the X case would not be medically sound or just, as it would provide for a liberal abortion regime, writes Ronan Mullen

BECAUSE it’s a bank holiday Monday, nobody’s in a hurry.

When Paddy and Maria Cahill’s little baby died, they were stunned, shocked, and devastated. Nothing had prepared them for it. All seemed perfect when Maria gave birth on Feb 19 to Martha but within hours things started to go terribly wrong.

The Cabinet is due to sign off today on a new site for the National Maternity Hospital.

A WICKLOW-BASED couple have put their wedding on hold to fund the cost of trying to conceive.

APPROXIMATELY 200 outpatient appointments at the country’s newest maternity hospital have had to be cancelled because the hospital failed to open on schedule at the weekend.

THE chair of a group tasked with selecting a site for a new national children’s hospital has resigned because of a conflict of interest.

THE Irish Nurses Organisation is investigating claims that 17 overseas nurses were threatened with repatriation unless they signed contracts which would have resulted in loss of earnings of up to €26,000 each.

UP to 17% of tasks carried out by junior doctors involve “finding stuff and paperwork” and 15% are either non-medical or could be done by a less-skilled hospital worker, a survey has found.

Catherine Shanahan

SERIOUSLY ILL children who need emergency care, and women in labour, should not be sent to many of the country’s general hospitals, a report has warned.

PREGNANT women turned away from the National Maternity Hospital because of a restriction on number will not be able to deliver in the two other Dublin maternity hospitals, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said last night.

THE National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at Holles Street in Dublin last year recorded the highest number of perinatal deaths for five years, according to its latest annual clinical report.

MATERNITY hospitals in the south may refuse to carry out blood tests and ultrasound scans on pregnant women who are cared for by independent midwives.