A Tralee hospital which has made improvements in the maternity services it provides for women is still awaiting a purpose-built maternity unit to cope with the extra numbers using its facilities, according to a Southern Health Board report.
The maternity unit is also in need of extra consultants and midwives, the report of the General Hospitals Committee meeting states.
Fears that the maternity service was under threat led to public meetings last year.
The number of births at Tralee General Hospital has increased by 25 per cent to 1,456 per annum since the early 1990s when hundreds of Kerry women gave birth in Cork and Limerick.
Women still leave Kerry to give birth in the private Bon Secours Hospital in Cork and the Southern Health Board's Erinville Hospital, also in Cork.
Last year around 280 Kerry women had their babies in Cork hospitals, down from 1998 when 502 Kerry women gave birth in Cork hospitals.
The provision of an epidural service, the opening of a women's health centre and the appointment of the board's only female obstetrician/gynaecologist, Dr Mary McCaffrey, to Tralee General Hospital, have contributed to the turnaround.
However, the construction of a purpose-built maternity unit has still not reached the design stage, and a limitation on the recruitment of additional staff has put a strain on staffing levels.