Births rise 10% in Rotunda after declining during pandemic

The State’s busiest maternity hospital, the Rotunda in Dublin, recorded a 10 per cent increase in births last year.

The 9,147 babies delivered in the hospital in 2021 is the highest in more than 10 years and reverses two years of declining numbers that began before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

There were 8,968 births last year, according to the hospital’s 2021 annual report. The baby count included 8,788 single babies, 353 twins and six triplets.

There was also a significant increase in clinical activity across all specialities, with new gynaecology referrals up 50 per cent and colposcopy up 25 per cent.

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“The years 2020 and 2021 were of course dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Rotunda master Prof Fergal Malone noted. “As if those were not sufficient challenges, we were the victims of cyber-warfare in 2021, when a vicious cyberattack targeting the HSE created disproportionate difficulties for the Rotunda, as one of only two fully digital/paperless hospitals in Ireland.”

During the year, the hospital renovated the delivery suite and opened two new permanent delivery rooms; expanded operating theatre capacity and the emergency assessment unit; and opened a new ambulatory gynaecology unit.

Prof Malone said the development of a new critical care wing in the hospital, to be located on the west side of Parnell Square, remains ongoing. The five-storey facility on the site of the current outpatient department will provide a new neonatal intensive care unit and postnatal inpatient ward.

“The Rotunda team are in the process of identifying a site to transfer outpatient services, to enable us to optimise the use of the existing Parnell Square building infrastructure,” he said.

For the first time in recent years, the rate of Caesarean delivery was stable, at 37 per cent.

There were no maternal deaths; the last one was in 2015.

Ten women presented to the early pregnancy service with complications following a termination performed elsewhere. The most common reason for attendance was prolonged bleeding and concern around “retained products of conception”.

The number of teenage pregnancies fell to 119, from 136 the previous year. Over one-third were Roma.

There were 309 attendances at the sexual assault treatment unit in the Rotunda, involving 28 different nationalities. The report says the pandemic appears to have had a significant impact on reporting of sexual assault since March 2020. As restrictions ease even further, it is expected numbers attending the unit this year will return to previous levels or even surpass them.

The hospital reported a 41 per cent increase in complaints, which is partly attributed to restrictions that were imposed on partners attending during the pandemic. Half of the negative comments received related to partners being asked to provide proof of Covid vaccination when visiting in the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Primate and Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin has praised the role of the church in the provision of healthcare historically, saying: “As our health services become increasingly secularised, it would be a shame if we were to lose the spiritual motivation and inspiration that can add so much value to healthcare.”

The archbishop was speaking at a special Mass marking the departure of St John of God brothers from St Mary’s in Drumcar Co Louth after 76 years. The HSE-funded health and social care services at Drumcar provides residential and day services to 400 adults with intellectual disabilities in the north-east region.

He said for generations the people of Ireland “were almost entirely dependent and were very grateful for the provision of health services by Catholic religious congregations”.

Love and mercy were “and remain, the hallmarks of Catholic healthcare that is inspired by the Gospel, which I hope will never be completely lost from this country, as the Catholic religious congregations move away from the frontline provision of healthcare services”, he said.