THERE WAS about a 30 per cent shortage of midwives in Dublin’s maternity hospitals, Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin told the Dáil.

“The hospitals are down in excess of 250 midwives in the service for the city and its wider hinterland,” he said.

Mr Ó Caoláin said a 2008 KPMG report had stated that Dublin maternity services were at risk “of serious untoward incidents” as a result of under-resourcing for midwifery in terms of staff employed across the three hospital sites.

“These hospitals cater for approximately 40 per cent of births across the State, which is a significant responsibility,” he added.

“As a result of the shortage, midwives in Dublin are currently delivering nearly double the number of babies than they should be obliged to, according to expert guidelines.”

The Sinn Féin TD, who was speaking during a debate on the Nurses and Midwives Bill, 2010, said each midwife within the system in Dublin was working twice as hard as he or she should be.

“That potentially impacts negatively on the quality of maternity care and makes medical intervention to accelerate births more likely.

“Statistics bear out increases in Caesarean sections and support that view.”

He advocated the setting up of a midwifery committee.

Clare Daly (Socialist Party) agreed and said midwives were not nurses but formed part of a separate profession that was in crisis.

“There is a belief that midwives have been seriously undermined and they have advocated a view, which I support, that they need a powerful midwives’ committee.”

Minister of State for Health Kathleen Lynch said there was not a parent who did not have enormous respect for midwives.

“We need to make this clear, because they are part and parcel of one of the most intimate journeys a woman will ever take,” she added.

“This is something we should all accept.”

Ms Lynch said that in the Bill, for the first time, midwifery was now accepted as a separate profession. There were now 100 direct-entry undergraduate midwifery places.

The Minister said there was no board which dealt entirely with nursing or any other healthcare profession.

The Bill proposed a board to deal with nursing and midwifery, which was an advance.

“As a consequence, we will have a midwifery committee with a majority of midwives,” she added.

“A board cannot have subcommittees whose decisions are binding on the board.”