Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is difficult to contemplate a more distressing scenario for parents than the death of a baby during childbirth or shortly after delivery.

It is all the more difficult for women in that I do not think anyone is quite as vulnerable as a woman when she is having a baby. I cannot say enough to express how sorry I am for the families and parents, in particular the mothers, involved. Having heard the distressing news about a further death in Cavan General Hospital and considering what the mother, the parents and the family must be going through, I offer my sympathy.

Before answering Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin's specific questions, we should be able to agree that the objective ought to be a health policy which focuses on the best health outcomes for mother and baby and the safe delivery of the baby. These babies are very much wanted. The best outcomes have to be at the core of our approach to maternity services in Ireland. Nothing other than this as a policy will serve women and babies as well as they might be served. It used to be said baby deaths and maternal mortality rates were exceptionally low in Ireland. I do not know the international figures and I am not an expert in the area. However, as almost every woman, mother and father has been shocked, I have been shocked by the repeated reports of deaths associated with maternity services. We need to agree that the best health outcome for mother and baby is the policy we should agree.

In that context, I welcome the decision by the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, to have the national maternity strategy review carried out this year. The strategy will provide the policy to underpin the women and infants health programme. The steering group advising on the strategy met for the first time last week and I understand it had a very useful discussion. The group is made up of people with wide experience, both in terms of personal experience and professional qualifications. That is as it should be. We need to agree that the core of the policy has to be one that promotes the best outcomes for mother and baby.

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