{"id":555171,"date":"2026-07-17T23:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/555171\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T23:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:26:11","slug":"coombe-at-200-back-then-women-just-had-their-babies-but-now-there-is-so-much-more-to-it-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/555171\/","title":{"rendered":"Coombe at 200: \u2018Back then women just had their babies, but now there is so much more to it\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was July 1967 when Bernadette Dunne\u2019s labour on her second child began. The time between contractions was quickening when her husband put her in the car and drove her to the Coombe maternity hospital<\/a> in Dublin 8.<\/p>\n

When they arrived, however, they were told the building had closed down and they had to go to a new hospital building nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t fathom it at the time. But when I arrived [at the new building] everything was so spanking new,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody who worked here came down to wish me luck and say \u2018hi\u2019 because they wanted to see who was the first woman who would give birth [here].\u201d <\/p>\n

Another woman was admitted around the same time, Dunne recalled, \u201cand they were wondering who was going to be first, but as if I cared at that stage, you know? I was a bit busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When her daughter, Louise Egan, finally arrived, Dunne was informed that she was the first new baby to be born in the new hospital.<\/p>\n

\"LouiseLouise Egan at the Coombe Hospital’s 200th anniversary event. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times<\/p>\n

Laughing that they were made to feel like VIPs or celebrities, Dunne says local businessman Paddy Whelan brought her a pram as a present to mark the occasion. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was just so glad it was over, but everybody was lovely. They really were,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The treatment they received then was one of the reasons why Egan decided to have her own daughters in the Coombe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really nice to see how the hospital has grown and all the different departments now,\u201d he said. \u201cBack then [when she was born] women just had their babies, but now there is so much more to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Study of Coombe hospital over 60 years shows progress of Irish maternity careOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Almost 60 years later, the mother and daughter visited the Coombe on Friday to see a series of commemorative flags \u2013 designed in collaboration with students from the National College of Art and Design<\/a> \u2013 raised to mark the hospital\u2019s 200th anniversary. <\/p>\n

The Coombe was established in 1826 following a tragedy in the winter of 1825 when two women and their newborn babies died near Thomas Street while trying to reach the Rotunda Hospital on the city\u2019s northside during a snowstorm.<\/p>\n

There was widespread outcry following their deaths and this prompted Margaret Boyle to purchase and repurpose the vacated Meath Hospital building in the Coombe area of Dublin\u2019s Liberties. She wanted to ensure vulnerable pregnant women would never again have to endure such dangerous conditions to receive obstetric care. The hospital then moved to its current site in 1967. <\/p>\n

Master of the Coombe Prof Michael O\u2019Connell said a lot has changed over the past two centuries, which means improved care for women and babies.<\/p>\n

He said the hospital expected to deliver a baby weighing 400g (less than 1lb) at 24 weeks on Friday. <\/p>\n

\"MasterMaster of the Coombe Hospital Prof Michael O\u2019Connell: \u2018We’ve come so far.\u2019 Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cThose babies wouldn\u2019t have survived before,\u201d he said \u201cThere was no neonatology care for babies. When you look at the obstetric element of it, the changes that have occurred include antibiotics, oxytocin … ultrasounds. So we\u2019ve come so far. We see scans now that we wouldn\u2019t have been able to interpret in those days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost 6,500 women gave birth at the Coombe last year and about 900 babies were cared for in its neonatal unit.<\/p>\n

The hospital also delivered benign gynaecological services in Ireland, with 19,000 attendances at outpatient gynaecology clinics and just under 7,000 gynaecological surgical procedures performed.<\/p>\n

While O\u2019Connell is proud of the successes and improvements, he also acknowledges the challenges, with infrastructure being a significant one. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur neonatal unit, for instance, was never devised to look after babies from 22 weeks on. We\u2019ve infrastructurally tried to adapt, but it\u2019s not ideal. In essence, the hospital does need a serious uplift. We have lots of work with the HSE Estates to do that and we are progressing it but it\u2019s quite slow process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was July 1967 when Bernadette Dunne\u2019s labour on her second child began. The time between contractions was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,630,2120,61,60,158979,88125],"class_list":["post-555171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-coombe-hospital","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-oconnell","tag-national-college-of-art-and-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}