A new report by the North Eastern Health Board on the maternity unit in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has found that it has the same rate of perinatal mortality or babies dying as the main Dublin maternity hospitals.
It also reveals that last year the rate in the Lourdes was 5.04 deaths per 1,000 births, which is lower than the 2001 rates for all three Dublin hospitals; that year it was 8.4 for the Coombe, 6.26 for the National Maternity Hospital and 6.1 for the Rotunda.
The Lourdes hospital has been at the centre of controversy because of the high rate of Caesarean hysterectomies carried out there by former consultant Dr Michael Neary. Earlier this year the Medical Council's Fitness to Practise Committee found him guilty of professional misconduct arising from the removal of the wombs of 10 women, and his name has been removed from the council's register.
The report on the maternity unit includes analysis of every delivery. The figures will allow the hospital to be compared with the Dublin hospitals and the small number of maternity units outside the capital that produce annual reports.
It is also seen as an effort to restore public confidence in the hospital, and is published the same week as the health board has placed adverts in local newspapers reminding all expectant mothers that full maternity and new-born services are available 24 hours a day at both the Lourdes hospital and at Cavan General Hospital.
The impact of non-national mothers on the figures in the report is significant; it reveals that 34 per cent of babies who died were born to non-national mothers, and 40 per cent of stillbirths in 2002 were also to non-national mothers.
Last year there were 560 births to non-national mothers at the hospital, representing 17 per cent of the total births of 3,254.
The report also reveals a 60 per cent increase in the number of births since 1998. It refers to the additional pressure on the hospital with the ending of maternity services in Dundalk and Monaghan in 2001.
In the report, consultant obstetrician gynaecologist Dr Maire Milner said there were a significant number of women who arrived at the hospital in labour who had not been seen during pregnancy, and "that no woman lost her life as a direct result of pregnancy/delivery is remarkable, and we acknowledge the part played by our anaesthetic, theatre and intensive-care staff".