Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept that as the numbers are low, just a few can change the percentages dramatically. It is phenomenal that the numbers are so low. I was at each of my four children's births and find it difficult to believe that there are not more problems. The confidential MDE cites a figure that is twice that of the CSO's. For 2009 and 2010, there were 149,000 maternities and 12 maternal deaths in Ireland, a maternal death rate of eight per 100,000 for those combined years. Data on the number of maternities for 2011 were unavailable at the time of writing.

The first of the report's six recommendations calls for a question on pregnancy status at the time of death to be added to the coroner's death certificate. The second recommendation is that interpretative services should be developed to ensure that the care of any patient is not compromised by a lack of communication and any misunderstanding.

The Minister will be familiar with the case of an African woman, Ms Bimbo Onanuga, who died in March 2010. According to her partner, hospital staff would not listen when he repeatedly warned that her condition was deteriorating. It has been reported that 75% of maternities in Ireland in 2010 involved women of Irish nationality, yet 40% of all maternal deaths identified between 2009 and 2011 by MDE Ireland were among women who were not born in this country. That is a bit frightening.

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