Ireland is the safest place to have a baby

 

Where abortion is not an option, as in Ireland, doctors must channel their skills and energies into saving lives rather than resorting to the bad medicine of abortion.

Proof that this situation is more beneficial to both mother and child can be seen in the United Nations Report The State of the World's Children (1994) stating that "Ireland is the safest place in the world for a mother to have a baby."

Excellent maternal mortality rates

Irish maternal mortality figures are excellent. They compare more than favourably with those of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Between 1984 (the year after the passing of the Eighth Amendment) and 1996 (the last full year for which figures are available) Irish maternal mortality figures have been consistently better than those in England and Wales. In 1996, for instance, there were 50,390 births in Ireland and there was 1 maternal death.

In 1982, a review of all maternal deaths in the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, over a ten-year period revealed that there were 21 maternal deaths from a total of 74,317 births. Analysis of the cause of death in each case led the authors of the study to conclude that the availability of induced abortion would not, in any way, have reduced the number of maternal deaths over the study period. A more recently published 1996 countrywide study of maternal mortality in Ireland between 1989 and 1991 revealed five direct maternal deaths arising from 157,752 births giving a rate of 3.2 per 100,000.

The authors commented:

The Republic of Ireland is unusual in the developed world in that termination of pregnancy is not available, This does not appear to have influenced these figures significantly, the maternal mortality rate directly due to obstetric causes being half that in the nearest European neighbour, i.e. England and Wales.

 

United Nations figures confirm this 

Independent United Nations figures further re-inforce this finding and confirm that Ireland has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the world. Britain and the United States, where abortion on demand is freely available, rank joint 14th on the league table for industrialised countries.

Because of a countrywide hospital confinement rate in excess of 99% of total births and the publication of annual reports by the three Dublin Maternity Hospitals (which together, account for nearly half of all births in the country), the published figures suggest that Irish maternal mortality figures are complete and that the data are accurate.

In Britain, however, there appears to be some discrepancy between official figures published by the Central Statistics Office and those compiled by the Committee of Inquiry into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom, reporting every three years, which suggests a degree of under-reporting. Such is not the case in Ireland.

 

Use the drop down menu or these links below

• Ireland's Medical Profession
• Irish Medical Council
• Obstetric Institute
• Consultant Obstetricians
• Obstetricians Statments