A 13-year-old pupil was among the more than 7,000 women who gave birth at Dublin's Rotunda hospital last year, its latest annual report shows.
The hospital's clinical report for 2006 notes that last year was the busiest year in the hospital's history.
Some 7,235 babies greater than 500g were delivered compared with 6,804 the previous year.
While the majority of the women giving birth were aged 30-34, the report states 106 girls under the age of 17 attended the hospital's teenage pregnancy clinic. "Two partners of the teenage girls committed suicide during the pregnancy," it said.
Most of the teenagers were living at home but two were in the care of the Health Service Executive.
Some 45 of them were out of education/not working and the Rotunda report says the low level of participation of young mothers in education, training or employment is of significant concern.
Some 70 per cent of the mothers were Irish, almost 10 per cent were from within the EU and the remainder were of other or unknown nationality.
The hospital's Caesarean section rate rose by just over 2 per cent to 27.7 per cent last year.
Dr Michael Geary, the hospital's master, says that the Rotunda "continues to rigorously audit" its Caesarean section rate.
The increased number of women being induced, in addition to other factors, had an influence on the rising rate, he said. There were no maternal deaths at the hospital last year.
The report notes that 34 of the pregnant women attending were HIV positive and of these, five were Irish. It also says 88 women on methadone treatment programmes delivered babies at the hospital in 2006.
The report states that 2006 was the busiest year for the hospital's sexual assault treatment unit since it began dealing with adult victims of sexual crime only.
The unit had 343 admissions, 320 of them by females and 19 by males. Fifteen clients were hospitalised for injury in relation to the assault and 10 clients were hospitalised for alcohol toxicity.
"The alleged assault, in acute attendances, occurred in the victim's home in 74 cases and in the assailant's home in 82 cases.
"The single assailant was a stranger in 109 cases, an acquaintance of less than 12 hours in 55 cases and the long-term partner in 12 cases. There was more than one assailant in 25 cases," the report states.
It adds that more than four units of alcohol had been consumed by the victim in 64 per cent of the acute cases.
But the date rape drug Rohypnol was not found to have been slipped into drinks in any case.
"In 42 cases the possible use of Rohypnol was considered by the client or the doctor . . . toxicology was not positive for Rohypnol in any of these cases," it said.
Last week the Master of the Coombe Women's Hospital, Dr Chris Fitzpatrick, said there had been a number of "near misses" for both mothers and babies at Dublin's three main maternity hospitals as a result of staffing shortages.
He was speaking at the publication of the Coombe's annual report for 2006 which showed 8,084 babies were delivered there last year and that its Caesarean section rate dropped to 22 per cent, the lowest it has been for three years.
Dr Geary states in the Rotunda's annual report that he hopes the ongoing review of maternity services in the Dublin and eastern region, commissioned by the HSE, will lead to a significant improvement in the delivery of services "matched by a significant increase in funding".