A baby girl was born without a doctor or midwife present in an ambulance en route to Cavan General Hospital from Ballybay, Co Monaghan, yesterday.
It is the second such roadside birth in Monaghan this month.
The mother had attended her GP's surgery in Ballybay when he recommended her for transfer by ambulance to Cavan. She gave birth in the ambulance five minutes into the journey and was attended by ambulance paramedics.
A spokeswoman from Cavan General Hospital confirmed there was no doctor or midwife present in the ambulance with the mother at the time of the birth. A second ambulance with a doctor and midwife was immediately sent from Cavan Hospital to assist the mother and infant. Both mother and baby were doing well in Cavan Hospital last night.
The child's birth along the roadside is the latest in a series of in-transit births between Monaghan and Cavan since the death of Bronagh Livingstone in an ambulance last December.
Last week a woman gave birth in Monaghan General Hospital after she arrived in the advanced stages of labour. On July 4th a woman who presented at Monaghan General Hospital in labour also gave birth in an ambulance on the journey to Cavan.
Sinn Féin's health spokesman, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD, said yesterday's birth showed "the dire need for the maternity unit at Monaghan to be reopened as a matter of urgency".
"Another child has been born in an ambulance along the roadside. People in Co Monaghan are outraged at what expectant mothers are being forced to endure," he said.