Women are being pushed through a "conveyor belt" type system when giving birth because of staff shortages and lack of resources, a leading childbirth academic has claimed.
Prof Cecily Begley, director of the school of nursing and midwifery at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), said hospital maternity services were often overcrowded and understaffed.
She said that these circumstances resulted in an "industrialised model of childbirth".
"There are increasing concerns about the medicalisation of childbirth and, due to overcrowding and under-resourcing of services, women are put on a conveyor belt system in which their labours are speeded up to make room for the next woman in labour," Prof Begley said.
Separately, research has shown that the number of hospitals where women can have their babies has declined from 90 in the mid-1970s to 20 maternity units today.
Prof Begley was speaking at the launch of a new national initiative, Childbirth Choices, to increase women's choices in childbirth.
The initiative, which includes a website (www.childbirthchoicesireland.com) and an information leaflet on midwife-led maternity services in Ireland, encourages women to contact their local maternity hospital, the Office of the Ombudsman or their local politician if services such as midwives' clinics or domino schemes aren't available in their area.
Domino schemes combine community-based ante-natal care with a hospital or home birth.They are run by midwives and exist in only a few hospitals.
There are only two midwifery-led maternity units, in Drogheda, Co Louth and in Cavan General Hospital. In rural areas, women often have to travel long distances for maternity services.
According to Prof Begley, there is increasing demand from women for maternity services which allow them to take charge of their own pregnancy and birth and discuss on an equal footing with an obstetrician or midwife what type of care they'd like.
"This is not an anti-medical initiative and obstetricians are essential when women need intervention in childbirth," says Prof Begley.
"But for the two-thirds of women who don't need intervention, there is very little choice."
The initiative also states that "choice and women-centred care is not a 'bells and whistles' extra" but is a minimum requirement for responsible maternity care.
The World Health Organisation recognises midwives as the most appropriate care givers for women with healthy normal pregnancies and births.
The Childbirth Choices initiative was launched yesterday to coincide with the International Day of the Midwife this Saturday.
The National Women's Council of Ireland, the midwives section of the Irish Nurses Organisation, Community Midwives Cork and Kerry, the Home Birth Association of Ireland and Cuidiú - Irish Childbirth Trust are among the organisations which support the initiative.
