Dr Rhona Mahony: Our maternity hospitals are falling down

Ireland has not paid enough attention to women and childbirth, and our maternity hospitals are “falling down”, according to the Master of the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin.

"I believe we did not pay enough attention to birth in this country. It was a women's issue. There's a tendency to turn off for women's issues, but here's the thing: everybody is born and women's issues matter," said Dr Rhona Mahony, the first female master of the hospital on Holles Street.

“When you look at it, we have a third the number of doctors we should have, we’re really short on midwives in my hospital, and the Rotunda is the same. And we have these old buildings that have changed very little.”

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Dr Mahony said that, as a society, we should nurture women who are having babies and that “we can do better”.

She was speaking to presenter Kathy Sheridan on the latest episode of The Women's podcast, a special 1916 programme recorded live at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.

“It strikes me as peculiar that we had no voice in the two major institutions of our formation, the Catholic Church and the State, who worked so closely together, and presto: We have maternity hospitals that are falling down and don’t have the staff they should have,” she said.

“I hope that in 100 years time they’ll say this was the turning point, this 1916 commemoration, when people started to listen to what women were saying and thinking.”

The Rotunda Hospital has cared for women and babies since the 18th century and had a unique view of the Rising, and the episode explored the role both it and Holles St Hospital played during the battle.

Anne O’Byrne, head librarian at the Rotunda, talked about what went on inside the hospital that day, as it remained open.

“If you walk through our side entrance, you’re going to be at the top of O’Connell Street, and the GPO is only a stone’s throw away. They had to get through that” to give birth, said O’Byrne.

When they arrived, they would encounter some of the impressive medical women O’Byrne researched, including the first female officer in the Irish Free State Army, Brigid Lyons Thornton, along with Kathleen Lynn, who described herself as “a Red Cross doctor and a belligerent” to her arresting officer.

Historian Mary McAuliffe talked about the more than 300 women who fought in the rising, 77 of whom were arrested.

Their stories are in the book 'We were there – 77 women of the Easter Rising', which McAuliffe co-edited with historian Liz Gillis.

“What we’re really saying is the women were there…They put their lives on the line in the same way men did and that contribution has to be recognised in the same way,” McAuliffe said.

The special episode also featured live music from Heathers, a Dublin band formed by twin sisters Ellie and Louise McNamara, along with 1940s-style trio The Bugle Babes.

From Monday, March 7th to Thursday, March 31st, the Rotunda Hospital’s “The Birth of a Nation” exhibition will showcase the lives of five extraordinary women in medicine from 1916 for the first time. Through a series of never-before-seen images, diaries and video footage, the public will be introduced to the women of the Rising at the Rotunda, such as Dr Kathleen Lynn, who went on to become important figures in Irish medical history.

International Women’s Day is coming up on 8th March, and The Women’s Podcast question of the week is: Who is the most influential woman in your world?

Tell us what you think by emailing thewomenspodcast@irishtimes.com or messaging us on Facebook or Twitter @ITWomensPodcast.

Individual episodes of the podcast are available on Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher and on irishtimes.com.