I AM HALFWAY through my pregnancy with my second child and I have only one viable option for my birth care: to return to an understaffed and under-resourced maternity unit, which has some of the highest intervention rates of the country, where I experienced birth trauma.

Some women in my position are choosing to give birth at home without medical assistance, also known as freebirthing. While this is not my choice, I have compassion and understanding for those who feel backed into this option.

Lack of meaningful choice is the reality many pregnant women are facing in 2025 in Ireland, one of the wealthiest countries in the world. In comparison, many other countries around the world offer birthing women four options for birth: in a hospital, at home, in a standalone birth centre or an alongside birthcentre.

Here, pregnant women are often not trusted to make decisions about their health and the health of their babies, with a culture that often views all births as a medical emergency to be managed rather than a natural event for women with uncomplicated pregnancies.

​​In 2016, the HSE launched the ambitious and welcomed National Maternity Strategy (NMS), a plan to make maternity care safer, normalising childbirth with more choices for women. However, nearly a decade later, many mothers have less choice and births in Ireland are more medicalised than ever before.

Ireland has one of the highest c-section rates in Europe, increasing year on year for the past decade despite “evidence suggesting no additional benefits to mothers and babies”.

A recent HSE report showed that last year, over 40% of women gave birth by c-section. The maternity safety statements for this year show the pattern is set to continue.

In a recent interview, the director of the National Women and Infants Health Program, NWIHP, touted that €28m was given for the NMS in new development funding since 2016.

Perhaps, if Ireland valued birthing women and babies as much as horse racing (which received........

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