ROI Minister for Health Leo Varadkar launched the Republic of Ireland's first national maternity strategy (27 January 2016). The strategy is a roadmap for the improvement of maternity services over the next ten years.
IPH developed the report on the consultation process for the strategy.
The Strategy identifies four priorities:
- A Health & Wellbeing approach should be adopted to ensure that babies get the best start in life. Mothers and families should be supported and empowered to improve their own health and wellbeing;
- Women should have access to safe, high-quality, nationally consistent, woman-centred maternity care;
- Pregnancy and birth should be recognised as a normal physiological process, and insofar as it is safe to do so, a woman’s choice in pregnancy and childbirth should be facilitated;
- Maternity services should be appropriately resourced, underpinned by strong and effective leadership, management and governance arrangements, and delivered by a skilled and competent workforce, in partnership with women.
Read IPH report: Consultation on the development of a National Maternity Strategy.
Read the strategy here: National Maternity Strategy Creating a Better Future Together
