Staffing levels in maternity hospitals slammed after study reveals inadequacies
The Master of Dublin's Rotunda Hospital has said that maternity units in Ireland have too few resources to practice mid-wife led care.
A new study involving NUI Galway has found that women who receive continuous care from midwives through pregnancy and birth fare better than those who are cared for by a team of obstetricians, GPs and midwives.
The Rotunda's Dr Sam Coulter-Smith said his main gripe is that staffing levels in maternity hospital are half of what they should be.
"In each of those hospitals the midwife to patient ratio is about 1:50 where it should be 1:25," he said.
"In addition to that the facilities that we work from don't allow us the sort of freedom to practise the type of midwifery led care that is being proposed within this study."
