Soaring birth rates are putting increasing pressure on maternity hospitals and the boom is set to continue beyond current projections.
The National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin, has announced that all elective gynaecological surgery is to be cancelled for the next two months because of the pressure on its obstetrics departments.
The Master of the hospital, Dr Declan Keane, said this had been the busiest month in 14 years and if projections for September were accurate, it would be the busiest in 16 years. According to the latest estimates from the Central Statistics Office, the increasing birth rates were set to continue until 2005, he added.
"We have been telling the Department of Health this but I don't think they believed us, but now, according to the latest figures, it looks as if they are going to increase even further. We have 747 mothers due to give birth in September."
Dr Keane said he regretted the cancellation of the elective surgery, including hysterectomies, prolapse operations and incontinence procedures. He hoped normal services would resume in November. The hospital would continue to treat gynaecological cancer cases, and other emergency cases.
"We have never had much of a waiting list, an average of six weeks, but now that will increase to three to four months. It is regrettable but during this busy period the hospital has decided to concentrate on its core activity of obstetrics."
The problems have been compounded by a shortage of midwives, he said.
The matron of the hospital is to interview candidates from Scotland and Finland shortly.
Dr Keane, who raised the issue of pressure on maternity services in an article in the Irish Medical Times, said expansion was planned at Holles Street and a design team was appointed, "but we will need a lot more besides". The increase in births could result in a budgetary over-run of up to £1.5 million.
The Master of the Coombe Hospital, Dr Michael Turner, said births at the hospital had risen for the third successive year. A similar increase was occurring in gynaecological surgery.
"We are heading for about 7,000 births this year, the biggest since 1991."
Dr Turner said latest forecasts from the CSO of a baby boom lasting until 2005 would indicate that previous Department of Health projections, which were based on lower fertility rates and higher levels of emigration, were incorrect. The increases had put a lot of pressure on the hospital's budget but they were "determined" to stay within budget.
"I'm optimistic that the Department of Health will treat our situation sympathetically. I don't think they believed us when we told them this was going to happen. The boom will obviously have other knock-on effects including on schools."