Half of all first babies born in the State are now delivered by Caesarean section, by forceps or vacuum delivery, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.
The Midwifery Birth Alliance, in a presentation to the joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, said this had not led to better outcomes for mothers or their babies.
There was an increasing number of babies born in this way being admitted to intensive care, Ms Marie O'Connor, of the alliance, said.
Ms O'Connor, who advocates a woman's right to choose how and where she wants to give birth, said birth was on the brink of "becoming an operation" when in fact it was one of the most natural things in the world.
Women, she said, were being "penned into ever-larger units of production" and the quality of care was being compromised. Furthermore, she said proposals to close smaller maternity units would increase "the industrialisation" of birth.
In addition, she said women in Ireland had less choice in relation to maternity care than anywhere else in western Europe. There was no midwife-led unit in the Republic and women who wanted to use a birthing pool to relieve pain had to opt for home births.
"The maternity services are underpinned by a raft of legislation that needs urgent reform," she added.
Ms Philomena Canning, a midwife, said many midwifes were leaving their profession because active management of birth in hospitals prevented them using their skills.
"Only 5 per cent of registered midwives are known to be in practice," she claimed.
The alliance called for hospitals to publish annual figures on rates of intervention during birth. Only the three maternity hospitals in Dublin published such reports, Ms O'Connor said.
Mr John Gormley, the Green party's health spokesman, said he had personal experience of home and hospital births and the home birth was "far superior". Maternity hospitals had, he said, become "birth factories" where women were talked down to and men only got in the way.
Ms Liz McManus, Labour's spokeswoman on health, said she took great comfort, when giving birth, from being surrounded by technology. Safety had to be paramount in all birthing situations, she said.
The committee is now likely to hear from other interested groups, including experts, before coming to any conclusions.