Ireland remains one of the safest places in the world to have a baby, Minister for Health Mary Harney said today.
Speaking at a press conference in Government buildings after a number of cases of misdiagnosed miscarriage emerged, Ms Harney expressed support to women affected or concerned and said she had spent the last couple of days putting the State's obstetric services right.
“I clearly would like to express my sympathy and my support and my solidarity with the women that have come forward this week and had such a traumatic experience both for themselves and for their families,” she said.
"My concentration over the last number of days has been to ensure that we put right, insofar as we can, our obstetric services around the country and that we have standardised practice both in the public and the private sector."
About a dozen mothers have come forward this week warning they were wrongly told they had miscarried, only to give birth later to healthy infants.
The HSE has commenced a review of recorded early pregnancy scan errors over the last five year, but patient support groups today questioned why the review did not stretch further back in time.
Cathriona Molloy, patient advocacy co-ordinator with support group Patient Focus, said cases of misdiagnosis had happened right across the country.
“It there’s any doubt at all the doctor needs to get a second opinion. Being pregnant is such a precious thing to be wiped out like that without listening to the mother”.
Dr Barry White, the HSE's national director of quality and clinical care, said he was not sure if going back 10 or 15 years with the review would provide help in making decisions in the present day.
The HSE said a five year period had been selected to cover enough cases to learn some lessons that could be brought forward to help improve early pregnancy care.
Ms Harney defended herself for not publicly addressing the issue sooner."Just because I haven't been in a TV or radio studio does not mean that I have not been working hard to put these things right," she said.
"There are an awful lot of people who are pregnant — 80,000 a year — and we want to make sure that these women have confidence in our system. It is one of the safest places in the world to have a baby and that remains a fact."
Earlier this week the HSE said cases of misdiagnosed miscarriage were “very rare”, but about a dozen women have come forward over the last three days with stories of having been wrongly told by maternity hospitals they were carrying dead babies, only to give birth later to healthy infants.
Elaine Cunningham, a mother of a five-year-old boy living in Ardrahan, Co Galway, and Martha O’Neill Brennan, a mother of four in Castle Ellen, Athenry, Co Galway were both were informed of miscarriages during scans in Galway University Hospital in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Both sought second opinions.
Melissa Redmond from Donabate, Co Dublin, said she was prescribed an abortifacient after an initial scan at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, in July 2009 showed no foetal heartbeat. Her baby, Michael, is now 13 weeks old.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said more than 250 worried women have called helplines concerned about their treatment at maternity units and hospitals.
