Baby deliveries rising at Portlaoise hospital maternity unit which needs investment

Birth numbers have risen at Portlaoise hospital's maternity unit but the facility is needs investment according the Laois hospital's Director of Midwifery. 

In 2021 the number of new babies delivered in Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise rose by 10%, to 1,541.

The Director of Midwifery Ita Kinsella told the Leinster Express / Laois Live that services are expanding to meet demand, but more investment is needed.

"Our numbers were up by 10% to 1,541 babies in 2021," she has confirmed, with "a huge ethnicity" that reflects population change in Laois.

The maternity wing needs an upgrade the director said.

"The increase brings demands. We would like to see capital investment to improve the infrastructure," she said.

As well as a Special Care Baby Unit for premature babies that serves the Midlands, the Maternity wing is offering increased natural birth plan alternatives to mothers, Ms Kinsella said.

"We do have a new 'home from home' birthing room which gives more choice. We have started Midwifery led clinics, both in line with the National Maternity Strategy. These take place in both the community and the hospital, it offers an option to women at low risk who don't wish to have intervention.

"It is about empowering women who believe they can achieve a normal birth with minimal intervention. We are able to identify any risk and move them into an an obstetric led plan if needed," the midwifery director said.

New Gynaecology Clinic in Laois hospital praised by Minister for Health

She praised her staff.

"I have very dedicated staff. Again, recruitment and retention are ongoing challenges, but we have rolling recruitment campaigns," she said.

While births are on the rise at the hospital they have yet to return to the rate experienced prior to the controversy which engulfed the hospital in 2014 when it emerged that babies died at the hospital unecessarily.

This led to a major upheaveal including the the establishment of a formal link with the Coombe hospital in Dublin.