New figures show that the level of intervention for first-time mums in hospitals in the Republic of Ireland is “worryingly high.”
The HSE released the 2012 figures of birth statistics from the country's 19 public maternity units, following a request by AIMS (the Association of Improvements in Maternity Services).
The data showed that first-time mothers are much more likely to end up undergoing some sort of intervention during the birth of their child, than women who have had children before.
C-section rates for first-time mothers varied from 22.95 per cent in Sligo General up to 40.15 per cent in St Luke’s Hospital Kilkenny.
The rate of instrumental deliveries and the use of episiotomies, were also much higher among first-time mothers across the country. Over 35 per cent of first-time mothers in Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH), University College Hospital Galway and Waterford Regional Hospital had a delivery with forceps or vaccum.
Both the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin and CUMH had very high rates of episiotomies, at 39.4 per cent and 38.78 per cent respectively.
Krysia Lynch, co-chairperson of AIMS, expressed concern about some of these figures.
"In the first instance, the rates of interventions to first-time mothers are worryingly high,” she said. “It points once again to the inappropriateness of a consultant-led care model for healthy, low risk mothers.”
She added that was “no medical reason” for such high levels of intervention and that the effects of these interventions on first-time mothers will influence the outcome of any future pregnancies they may have.
She said that the low number of women going on to have a vaginal birth after a previous caesarean indicates that “women are not being supported by their local maternity unit to have a vaginal birth if they so wish.”
The figures also show the range of breastfeeding rates across Republic of Ireland’s hospitals, from 66.8 per cent at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin to 38 per cent at the Mid-Western Regional Maternity Hospital in Limerick.
