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A STUDY HAS found that the number of births delivered by caesarean section (c-section), has increased fourfold in the past 30 years.
The study conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), UCD and Trinity College Dublin, found that births by c-section has increased from 7% in 1984 to 13% in 1993 and 30% by 2014 (the latest year available).
The increase in c-sections is a major reason why deaths among mothers and children in childbirth are a fraction of what they were in the past, as similar increases are evident across other OECD countries.
Concerns
But there are now concerns that the benefits of c-section may be outweighed by the increased clinical risks and economic costs that it carries.
The primary reason why use of c-section has increased over time is that medical advances have made the operation much safer for the mother.
But the research also shows that factors like the increasing average age of mothers, particularly first-time mothers and the clinical risks that this brings are crucial.
Other research findings from the joint research initiative include:
Policy Implications
The number of births in Irish maternity units increased from 54,000 in 1999 to over 76,000 in 2009 before falling to 68,000 in 2014 – a 26% increase.
The average level of risk associated with mothers giving birth in Irish hospitals is increasing.
However, funding and staffing levels in maternity services has not kept pace with either the number of births or the risk profile.
Prof Michael Turner from the UCD Centre for Human Reproduction said that:
“Irish maternity units continue to deliver results which are among the best in the world.
If we wish to maintain this record, we will need to invest to take account of adverse trends whilst constantly striving to coordinate and improve practice in Irish maternity services.
The study’s findings were based on data on births recorded in the 19 Irish maternity units over the last 17 years.
A conference taking place at the ESRI today will bring together leading researchers and practitioners in the field of maternal health to discuss the increasing use of caesarean section in Ireland and the associated risks for mothers and infants.
The conference will discuss this recently published and ongoing research from a collaboration between researchers from the ESRI, the Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin and the UCD Centre of Human Reproduction at the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital.
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From the sample pages here, it looks like a lovely, well-produced book:
https://andalus.ie/books/1588-the-spanish-armada-and-the-24-ships-lost-on-irelands-shores/
Saw it in my local bookshop the other day. Looked good. I was tempted! I might treat myself at Christmas.
Our own romantic version of the shipwrected Spanish sailors being protected by the people in the West is another fib.
The locals butchered them as they were washed ashore robbed, stripped them, then claimed the bounties from the local British governor.
@H Woo: True about Mayo, Sligo and Kerry but there was a major exception in Donegal where the McSweeney clan did welcome the Armada survivors and gave them a haven in Killybegs.
The McSweeneys territory was independent of the British and so was that of the O’Rourke’s and neither of them had British governors to worry about but thevO’Rourke territory was not maritime and had a merely peripheral link with the Armada.
By the way, a great number of the sailors were not Spanish or Portuguese bu mercenary Slavs from Ragusa (now Dubrovnik in Croatia).
It’s not widely known that in 1589 the English gathered an Armada of their and sailed to Portugal and Spain where they got their ar5es handed to them.
@brendan hackett: Yes: ‘The English Armada was larger than the Spanish, and from many points of view it was an even greater disaster. This fact, however, is completely overlooked. It is never mentioned in the history courses taught in British schools and a majority of British history teachers have never even heard of it.’
@brendan hackett:
Known as the white armada.
Not widely known about in England
It was a most ferocious battle. Many sailor’s lives lost unfortunately against the merciless Spanish barbarians.
@Buster Lawless: You forgot to insert woke into the sentence.
@Clare Power: he/it is also totally clueless on the subject, obviously.
@Dermot Blaine: it’s like every time he says, “Woke on the journal, he gets paid 10 cent…
@Clare Power: leave politics and your silly wokism out of this piece of history please.
The McSweeney territory in Donegal was an exception to your suggestion that Armada survivors were slaughtered. The McSweeneys gave refuge to the survivors, and Killybegs became a haven for Armada ships. They stayed there to repair their damaged ships, some of them then set out for Scotland, which was then independent of England.
There is a tradition in three families in the area of descent from Armada survivors but not necessarily dark-haired Spaniards. Many of the sailors were Slavic mercenaries from Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik).
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