Egg freezing — how it works and who's opting for this procedure
A third of women would consider freezing their eggs, they said in the Irish Examiner National Women's Health Survey, conducted by Ipsos B&A.
Egg freezing used to be an option provided to women who, for medical reasons — such as cancer treatment or a family history of early menopause — faced risks to their fertility and to ensure the capacity to conceive.
Increasingly, the option is available to women who can afford it, who may not be in a couple, or who may not be ready to start trying for a baby, but who want to preserve the chance.
This procedure is called 'social egg freezing' — or the more technical term, elective oocyte cryopreservation.
According to the latest figures from the Health Products Regulatory Authority, the number of eggs frozen for future use in fertility treatments has increased almost fivefold, from 2,590 in 2019 to 12,890 in 2024.
The number of eggs a woman has drops off significantly from the age of 30. Retrieving 10-20 eggs is considered optimal, and, for some women, achieving this amount may require multiple cycles.
Health authorities and clinics caution that no number of eggs will guarantee a baby, but freezing is a way women can improve their chances, particularly if they are under the age of 35.
Lauren Murphy, a senior fertility midwife at the Thérapie Clinic in Limerick.
Lauren Murphy, a senior fertility midwife at the Thérapie Clinic in Limerick, and working for a decade in the field, says: 'In the last five years or so, there's definitely more women looking at fertility preservation and also single motherhood by choice.'
Even when people come to the clinic as part of a couple, Murphy says they would advise egg freezing in addition to embryo freezing. Where a couple freezes embryos and the relationship doesn't work out, any frozen embryos would require the consent of the former partner for the embryos to be used. Frozen eggs are the sole ownership of the woman.
After initial consultation, the subsequent steps are assessments with scans and blood testing. The medical team uses the test results to determine the number of egg-retrieval cycles that may be necessary.
Murphy says: 'There is no diagnostic test on the market to assess the quality of eggs, so, at initial testing, we're really focusing on a test to identify the quantity. That [quantity] will also influence the drug dosages that we need to give to stimulate the ovaries.'
A blood test for AMH (anti-mullerian hormone) levels indicates a woman's ovarian reserve or egg numbers.
Murphy says they would also recommend a trans vaginal ultrasound scan. It can be done on any cycle date and takes about 15 minutes.
The ovaries are measured, and all the individual anterior follicles (sacs containing immature eggs) are counted.
The information provides the medical team with a better understanding of how many eggs can be retrieved from a single egg-freezing cycle.
Egg decline after 30
Three years ago, at the age of 34, Tara Logan Buckley (pictured right) decided to freeze her eggs.
She is a chartered clinical psychologist and wanted to get to a senior level in her career before motherhood.
She was in a relationship, but did not see a future and a family with that person. Housing was another factor.
She wanted to have the security of a home before starting a family: 'I was living in Dublin, I had been a student for quite a long time, there were a lot of debts that needed to be repaid, and I just didn't have my own property.
"As you know, housing market prices have dramatically increased, and they're rising all the time. I didn't want to be living in a house that I couldn't afford and couldn't give a child the quality of life they needed or give myself a quality of life and then be financially stressed.'
Outside of these social and environmental factors, Buckley was compelled by the science: 'I got absolutely no education on fertility when I was young, I got nothing in school or college. I come from a clinical psychology background, where there is a lot of science. I didn't know the number of eggs dramatically declines after 30.'
'When I started, it was more like 'Will I, won't I?' When I did the research, I was like 'Wow, this is frightening.' Every woman should be told this, and every woman should be given the opportunity in their early 20s to do this.
'When I went to the consultant, he said to me 'Look, you're doing it as an insurance.' I may choose never to have a child, unless circumstances change. There is also a silver lining to that, where another woman might use them in the future if I don't use them, but also the fact that I could use all of them, but none of them might work.'
Tara Logan Buckley: "You need to be prepared to be really, really regimental with your routine. Having people around you for support, as well. I felt OK until I got to those last 48 hours, where I couldn't wait to go in and get [the eggs] out.'
When Logan Buckley was undergoing egg freezing, there was an initial delay, due to a cyst on one of her ovaries: 'That was a bit of a blow, because it was meant to take six weeks and mine went on to three months.'
Despite this initial obstacle, she did not experience side effects from the medications or hormones.
The most challenging part was leading up to the egg collection: 'Coming close to the date that they are due to be extracted, it's extremely, extremely uncomfortable; you want to burst. It's so full, because you normally wouldn't have that many eggs.
'The medications are timed to the last minute, especially that last activating one that you need to take. You need to be prepared to be really, really regimental with your routine. Having people around you for support, as well. I felt OK until I got to those last 48 hours, where I couldn't wait to go in and get [the eggs] out.'
The clinic Logan Buckley chose for her treatment had an online portal that was a real support to her: 'You had access to support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If there was anything at all you were slightly concerned about, you could pop it into the portal, and they would get back to you in lightning speed. That was really reassuring.'
Fertility treatment costly
At the age of 32, in 2003, Karen, from Dublin, embarked on her IVF journey. She had a 12-year-old child from a previous relationship. She subsequently met and married another man. He had fertility complications from a bout of the mumps he'd had as a teenager.
At the hospital fertility clinic Karen attended, she had a combination of frozen embryos and frozen eggs. She and her husband went on to have two children from two frozen embryos: A son, now 21, and a daughter, who has just turned 18.
Karen's experience was overall 'very positive': 'I was very well looked after. Both my embryos took first time; the doctor said I was in a 5% statistic of it working first time. The hardest part was having to do the injections before you have an egg collection and all of that process.'
Fertility treatment is a costly undertaking. Karen says: 'The banter in my house is, 'I have a receipt for you pair!' It was a financial burden, but when you're desperate, you'd beg, borrow, and steal. My mother-in-law gave us a good handout financially.'
The Government is now subsidising one cycle of IVF for qualifying couples. Egg freezing for fertility preservation is not included in this provision. Irish Life, Laya, and VHI include provisions for egg freezing in some of their plans, typically up to a cost of € 1,000.
Egg-freezing costs approximately €3,000 per cycle and approximately €300 per year for storage.
In Ireland, the storage period is unlimited until the age of 49.
While Irish fertility clinics operate to international standards, there is no regulatory authority or national clinical governance framework for the fertility services sector.
Karen Murphy says the fertility sector has repeatedly called for regulation. In Britain, the regulator is the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
The necessity of regulatory oversight is apparent, and it becomes even more evident as demand for such services increases and new service providers enter the market.
Click here to read our National Women's Health Survey.
The Irish Examiner Women's Health Survey 2025
Ipsos B&A designed and implemented a research project for the Irish Examiner involving a nationally representative sample of n=1,078 women over the age of 16 years.
The study was undertaken online with fieldwork conducted between April 30 and May 15, 2025.
The sample was quota controlled by age, socio-economic class, region and area of residence to reflect the known profile of women in Ireland based on the census of population and industry agreed guidelines.
Ipsos B&A has strict quality control measures in place to ensure robust and reliable findings; results based on the full sample carry a margin of error of +/-2.8%.
In other words, if the research was repeated identically results would be expected to lie within this range on 19 occasions out of 20.
A variety of aspects were assessed in relation to women's health including fertility, birth, menopause, mental health, health behaviour, and alcohol consumption.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
12 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Why many women are deciding not to have a child
A new National Women's Health Survey, commissioned by the Irish Examiner and carried out by market researchers Ipsos B&A, found that, among women who are currently pregnant or who have had a child, one in five experienced fertility difficulties. Four in five of these women sought medical advice in relation to their infertility or their partner's, while 52% underwent fertility treatment such as IVF. A total of 1,078 women aged 18 and above responded to the survey. While 45% of the women who had had a child said they plan to have another, 49% said they don't want to. Galway woman Serena Matthew, who is in her early 40s, falls into that cohort: 'Two children were always in my head as an [ideal] number. I now have an 11-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. My husband would have loved a third, but we decided that after our second, it just wasn't an option.' Their decision was based on their finances. 'We saw the cost involved in bringing up two children. We've a four-bed house and the fourth bedroom is small, so we didn't have the space. Moving wasn't an option with prices going up. Two is what we could handle. We didn't want to put ourselves in a difficult position financially.' Matthew is not alone in her position. More than one in three National Women's Health Survey respondents report not feeling financially in a position to have a child, or another child. 11% disagree, and a large number 'don't know' or are unsure. Dr Dora Tuda, an ESRI research officer is not surprised by the finding that one-quarter of all women say they have delayed, or will delay, having children until they have reached certain financial or career goals — a thinking more characteristic of middle-class women. Tuda points out that nowadays, in Ireland, the EU and the US, more women than men hold a third-level degree: 'In Europe in 2022, 48% of women held a third-level degree compared to 37% of men. Why do people get a higher-level degree? To get a better job, a higher income. So if women are considering having a child, they also need to think about leaving the labour market for a while, which corresponds to some income loss.' While acknowledging that it sounds harsh, Tuda highlights what economists refer to as a 'child penalty' — the pay cut that having a child involves and that falls disproportionately on women. 'Even in Scandinavian countries — [considered] more 'equal' than other countries — women on average experience a 20% income loss after having a child compared to men with the same experience and qualifications. This is because of maternity leave — once they return to work, it takes time to catch up. They may lose chances of promotion.' Dr Dora Tuda, a research officer with the ESRI. Equality in leave In Ireland, parental leave is set up so women are more likely to take leave after having a child — 26 weeks paid maternity leave compared to two weeks paid paternity leave for fathers. 'The system is [such] that the income loss from having a child is taken on by women and not equally between men and women,' says Tuda, adding that Norway — and more recently Spain — are taking steps to counteract this. 'Spain has introduced a mandatory equal parental leave for both parents — they're each given six months. The mother takes the first six months, after which she returns to work, and the second parent takes the next six months. If the second parent doesn't take it, the leave goes away.' That more than one in three women here don't feel, financially, they could have a child, or another child, is also put in context, says Tuda, by the rising cost of child-rearing. 'Recent estimates from Laya Life say to raise a child up to age 21 costs €169,000.' However, delaying having children is not all down to cost. 'People are spending longer in education compared to earlier. They're also taking longer to reach job stability. Gap years abroad, unpaid internships — all valid decisions young people take to get ahead, to have better opportunities when seeking a more stable permanent job, but it also delays having children.' As do housing challenges — Tuda points out that in 10 years, the median age of buyers taking out residential property mortgages climbed by four years. 'In 2010, the median age was 33 years. In 2021, it was 37. Being older when buying property can automatically delay starting a family.' In the mix, too, says Tuda, is a sense of changing cultural norms — a move towards smaller families or even remaining childless. 'You hear this more often than you did 20 years ago.' Bonnie O'Halloran: 'One friend wants children with her boyfriend. But most people my age feel similarly to me. They don't fear pregnancy as I do — they focus more on the climate and financial aspect. None of us has stable enough careers to consider having kids. Most of us still live with our parents.' Picture: Moya Nolan Not wanting a child Of respondents to the National Women's Health Survey, who are aged under 50 and who have not yet had a child, 37% said it is unlikely they will have a child, and one-fifth are adamant they won't. One of these respondents — 25-year-old Bonnie O'Halloran from Naas — explains why, for a variety of reasons, she does not want to have children. For one, she suspects she has endometriosis — there is a family history — and she fears what pregnancy will do to her body. 'I've not wanted kids for as long as I can remember. Being a woman, it's said to you a lot — 'when will you have kids?' When you say you don't want that, you're told 'you will when you're older'. That didn't happen for me. My youngest brother was born when I was 11. I got to watch him growing up, and the responsibility of being there for another human being isn't something I wanted for myself.' 'I also saw what parenting did to my parents, not in any horrible way, but the things they had to give up. My mum went to college when she was 40 and I'm really proud of that but she couldn't do it sooner. I don't want to put that kind of pressure on myself.' Yet O'Halloran, who has a degree in illustration and currently works as a substitute teacher, loves children and thinks she might adopt when she's in her 40s. But she also sees the world's current political atmosphere, as well as climate and financial realities, as factors in deciding not to have children — a feeling she says many of her peers share: 'One friend wants children with her boyfriend. But most people my age feel similarly to me. They don't fear pregnancy as I do — they focus more on the climate and financial aspect. None of us has stable enough careers to consider having kids. Most of us still live with our parents.' While a recent CSO report indicates that our fertility rate is declining, Tuda confirms that, at 1.55 births per woman, it remains above the European average of 1.46. Among the under-50 survey respondents, who have yet to start a family, about two in five say they are 'definitely' or 'very likely' going to do so, with a further 10% saying they are 'quite likely'. Click here to read our National Women's Health Survey. The Irish Examiner Women's Health Survey 2025 Ipsos B&A designed and implemented a research project for the Irish Examiner involving a nationally representative sample of n=1,078 women over the age of 16 years. The study was undertaken online with fieldwork conducted between April 30 and May 15, 2025. The sample was quota controlled by age, socio-economic class, region and area of residence to reflect the known profile of women in Ireland based on the census of population and industry agreed guidelines. Ipsos B&A has strict quality control measures in place to ensure robust and reliable findings; results based on the full sample carry a margin of error of +/-2.8%. In other words, if the research was repeated identically results would be expected to lie within this range on 19 occasions out of 20. A variety of aspects were assessed in relation to women's health including fertility, birth, menopause, mental health, health behaviour, and alcohol consumption.
Irish Examiner
13 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Egg freezing — how it works and who's opting for this procedure
A third of women would consider freezing their eggs, they said in the Irish Examiner National Women's Health Survey, conducted by Ipsos B&A. Egg freezing used to be an option provided to women who, for medical reasons — such as cancer treatment or a family history of early menopause — faced risks to their fertility and to ensure the capacity to conceive. Increasingly, the option is available to women who can afford it, who may not be in a couple, or who may not be ready to start trying for a baby, but who want to preserve the chance. This procedure is called 'social egg freezing' — or the more technical term, elective oocyte cryopreservation. According to the latest figures from the Health Products Regulatory Authority, the number of eggs frozen for future use in fertility treatments has increased almost fivefold, from 2,590 in 2019 to 12,890 in 2024. The number of eggs a woman has drops off significantly from the age of 30. Retrieving 10-20 eggs is considered optimal, and, for some women, achieving this amount may require multiple cycles. Health authorities and clinics caution that no number of eggs will guarantee a baby, but freezing is a way women can improve their chances, particularly if they are under the age of 35. Lauren Murphy, a senior fertility midwife at the Thérapie Clinic in Limerick. Lauren Murphy, a senior fertility midwife at the Thérapie Clinic in Limerick, and working for a decade in the field, says: 'In the last five years or so, there's definitely more women looking at fertility preservation and also single motherhood by choice.' Even when people come to the clinic as part of a couple, Murphy says they would advise egg freezing in addition to embryo freezing. Where a couple freezes embryos and the relationship doesn't work out, any frozen embryos would require the consent of the former partner for the embryos to be used. Frozen eggs are the sole ownership of the woman. After initial consultation, the subsequent steps are assessments with scans and blood testing. The medical team uses the test results to determine the number of egg-retrieval cycles that may be necessary. Murphy says: 'There is no diagnostic test on the market to assess the quality of eggs, so, at initial testing, we're really focusing on a test to identify the quantity. That [quantity] will also influence the drug dosages that we need to give to stimulate the ovaries.' A blood test for AMH (anti-mullerian hormone) levels indicates a woman's ovarian reserve or egg numbers. Murphy says they would also recommend a trans vaginal ultrasound scan. It can be done on any cycle date and takes about 15 minutes. The ovaries are measured, and all the individual anterior follicles (sacs containing immature eggs) are counted. The information provides the medical team with a better understanding of how many eggs can be retrieved from a single egg-freezing cycle. Egg decline after 30 Three years ago, at the age of 34, Tara Logan Buckley (pictured right) decided to freeze her eggs. She is a chartered clinical psychologist and wanted to get to a senior level in her career before motherhood. She was in a relationship, but did not see a future and a family with that person. Housing was another factor. She wanted to have the security of a home before starting a family: 'I was living in Dublin, I had been a student for quite a long time, there were a lot of debts that needed to be repaid, and I just didn't have my own property. "As you know, housing market prices have dramatically increased, and they're rising all the time. I didn't want to be living in a house that I couldn't afford and couldn't give a child the quality of life they needed or give myself a quality of life and then be financially stressed.' Outside of these social and environmental factors, Buckley was compelled by the science: 'I got absolutely no education on fertility when I was young, I got nothing in school or college. I come from a clinical psychology background, where there is a lot of science. I didn't know the number of eggs dramatically declines after 30.' 'When I started, it was more like 'Will I, won't I?' When I did the research, I was like 'Wow, this is frightening.' Every woman should be told this, and every woman should be given the opportunity in their early 20s to do this. 'When I went to the consultant, he said to me 'Look, you're doing it as an insurance.' I may choose never to have a child, unless circumstances change. There is also a silver lining to that, where another woman might use them in the future if I don't use them, but also the fact that I could use all of them, but none of them might work.' Tara Logan Buckley: "You need to be prepared to be really, really regimental with your routine. Having people around you for support, as well. I felt OK until I got to those last 48 hours, where I couldn't wait to go in and get [the eggs] out.' When Logan Buckley was undergoing egg freezing, there was an initial delay, due to a cyst on one of her ovaries: 'That was a bit of a blow, because it was meant to take six weeks and mine went on to three months.' Despite this initial obstacle, she did not experience side effects from the medications or hormones. The most challenging part was leading up to the egg collection: 'Coming close to the date that they are due to be extracted, it's extremely, extremely uncomfortable; you want to burst. It's so full, because you normally wouldn't have that many eggs. 'The medications are timed to the last minute, especially that last activating one that you need to take. You need to be prepared to be really, really regimental with your routine. Having people around you for support, as well. I felt OK until I got to those last 48 hours, where I couldn't wait to go in and get [the eggs] out.' The clinic Logan Buckley chose for her treatment had an online portal that was a real support to her: 'You had access to support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If there was anything at all you were slightly concerned about, you could pop it into the portal, and they would get back to you in lightning speed. That was really reassuring.' Fertility treatment costly At the age of 32, in 2003, Karen, from Dublin, embarked on her IVF journey. She had a 12-year-old child from a previous relationship. She subsequently met and married another man. He had fertility complications from a bout of the mumps he'd had as a teenager. At the hospital fertility clinic Karen attended, she had a combination of frozen embryos and frozen eggs. She and her husband went on to have two children from two frozen embryos: A son, now 21, and a daughter, who has just turned 18. Karen's experience was overall 'very positive': 'I was very well looked after. Both my embryos took first time; the doctor said I was in a 5% statistic of it working first time. The hardest part was having to do the injections before you have an egg collection and all of that process.' Fertility treatment is a costly undertaking. Karen says: 'The banter in my house is, 'I have a receipt for you pair!' It was a financial burden, but when you're desperate, you'd beg, borrow, and steal. My mother-in-law gave us a good handout financially.' The Government is now subsidising one cycle of IVF for qualifying couples. Egg freezing for fertility preservation is not included in this provision. Irish Life, Laya, and VHI include provisions for egg freezing in some of their plans, typically up to a cost of € 1,000. Egg-freezing costs approximately €3,000 per cycle and approximately €300 per year for storage. In Ireland, the storage period is unlimited until the age of 49. While Irish fertility clinics operate to international standards, there is no regulatory authority or national clinical governance framework for the fertility services sector. Karen Murphy says the fertility sector has repeatedly called for regulation. In Britain, the regulator is the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The necessity of regulatory oversight is apparent, and it becomes even more evident as demand for such services increases and new service providers enter the market. Click here to read our National Women's Health Survey. The Irish Examiner Women's Health Survey 2025 Ipsos B&A designed and implemented a research project for the Irish Examiner involving a nationally representative sample of n=1,078 women over the age of 16 years. The study was undertaken online with fieldwork conducted between April 30 and May 15, 2025. The sample was quota controlled by age, socio-economic class, region and area of residence to reflect the known profile of women in Ireland based on the census of population and industry agreed guidelines. Ipsos B&A has strict quality control measures in place to ensure robust and reliable findings; results based on the full sample carry a margin of error of +/-2.8%. In other words, if the research was repeated identically results would be expected to lie within this range on 19 occasions out of 20. A variety of aspects were assessed in relation to women's health including fertility, birth, menopause, mental health, health behaviour, and alcohol consumption.
Irish Examiner
13 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Birth experiences: why care is needed before, during, and after giving birth
Ireland is becoming a better place to have a baby. That's according to the Irish Examiner National Women's Health Survey, conducted by Ipsos B&A, in which women who have had multiple births report a gradual improvement in care over time. However, there is still progress to be made. Some 41% of mothers said their first birth was difficult or complicated. Prenatally, 36% found healthcare professionals unwilling to consider alternative approaches to birth. Dissatisfaction was highest with postnatal care. One in three cited problems accessing lactation consultants and breastfeeding supports. Three in 10 feel there was a lack of information about postpartum recovery, and one in four said they didn't get enough advice about looking after their baby. Deirdre Daly, associate professor of midwifery and director of the Centre for Maternity Care Research at Trinity College Dublin. Deirdre Daly, an associate professor of midwifery and director of the Centre for Maternity Care Research at Trinity College Dublin, believes the maternity service lets women down when it doesn't give them adequate postnatal support: 'Mothers need to learn how to keep themselves and their babies healthy and well, They need to be told what is and isn't normal, so they can reach out for help, if needed. That's how they get off to the best possible start.' Tony Fitzpatrick, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Association's (INMO) director of professional services, says that many of the problems within maternity services are caused by a lack of staffing. Tony Fitzpatrick, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Association's (INMO) director of professional services, says that many of the problems within maternity services are caused by a lack of staffing. This lack extends to postnatal care, where the shortage of public health nurses and general nurses results in inadequate care for mothers and babies after they leave hospital. 'With regard to postnatal care, the INMO has highlighted shortfalls in both public-health-nurse and community-registered, general-nurse staffing levels, as well as the numbers of midwives providing care in maternity hospitals,' he says. 'INMO members have reported they are striving to meet basic care needs for newborns and their mothers, but that they are far too stretched to give mothers the level of care they are trained to provide.' What the INMO would like to see, he says, is 'a maternity service that places women, babies, families, and midwives at the centre of care'. Postnatal hubs Efforts are being made to create such a service. Daly sees the network of postnatal hubs that have opened around Ireland as a welcome development. Run by midwives, they currently operate in Cork, Kerry, Carlow-Kilkenny, Sligo, and Portiuncula in Galway. 'Our research shows women often feel invisible in the maternity service, particularly postnatally, when the focus moves from mother to baby,' says Daly. 'These hubs were set up as a pilot project in 2022 as a way of addressing that. For six weeks after birth and longer, if necessary, women can go to midwives with their questions and worries and midwives can identify and treat potential problems before they escalate.' Dr Cliona Murphy, chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Dr Cliona Murphy, chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, adds that plans are under way to open an additional eight hubs throughout 2025 and 2026. 'Each will deliver accessible, woman-centred postnatal care to mothers and babies,' she says. 'They will provide multi-disciplinary support in local settings, with services such as breastfeeding support, birth reflections, and debriefing, wound care and more.' There are other positive developments within the maternity service. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, women now have three care pathways to choose from, tailored to their individual clinical needs and preferences. There has also been investment in education and training, with clinical practice guidelines being developed in subjects such as care for women using a birthing pool for labour and birth. Chair of the Association for Improvements in Maternity Care Ireland (AIMS), Krysia Lynch, says there is much we could learn from other countries, citing Germany as an example: 'Women there see the same midwife at all their appointments and build up a relationship of trust with them. We would benefit from that continuity of care in Ireland.' She would also like us to emulate the French by including a postnatal pelvic check as standard: 'Women's pelvic health is so important for their general health and quality of life as they age.' The key to increasing women's satisfaction with the care they receive in the maternity system is ensuring that their voices are heard at all stages, according to Daly. 'Some 41% of first-time mothers find birth difficult or complicated,' she says. 'Nobody thinks they should lower their expectations or anticipate complications. Instead, we should aim to exceed their expectations by consulting them and considering their needs prenatally, during birth, and after they have their baby.' More support second time Stephanie Buckley is a 39-year-old mother of two from Tralee. Her oldest is three, and she was well taken care of when she was pregnant with him: 'My appointments and scans were great. I was listened to and cared for at all times.' It was during labour that things started to veer away from what she expected. Buckley's waters broke. Labour started, but then stalled: 'I was induced, and when he still didn't come out, I had to have a C-section.' She hoped for a different outcome with her second child, who is now four months old. 'But it went the same way,' she says. However, there was one big difference between the two experiences: The level of postnatal care: 'After my first baby was born, the midwives were great, but they were so busy they couldn't spend much time with me.' She saw a lactation consultant and appreciated the visit from her public health nurse: 'But I still had questions, particularly in relation to my C-section recovery, and would have liked more follow-up.' She got this with her second baby, because, in the meantime, a HSE-run postnatal hub opened in Tralee. 'It was everything I'd been looking for,' she says. 'At my first visit, I had a full debrief on the birth, was checked for postpartum depression, and the midwife looked at my wound. It was just about to get infected, but she caught it just in time.' Buckley returned to the hub two or three more times after that to get her wound checked and ask more questions. 'I didn't have to sit at home and wonder like I did with my first baby,' she says. 'There were people I could talk to. That was missing the first time around, that extra layer of reassurance and support.' Yvonne Harris, 39, has a three-year-old child and lives in Firhouse, Dublin. Photograph Moya Nolan Problems in labour Yvonne Harris, 39, has a three-year-old child and lives in Firhouse, Dublin. Harris felt cared for throughout her pregnancy. 'I was given good information and was always listened to,' she says. 'It wasn't until I went in to labour that things started to go wrong.' She was 1.5cm dilated when she arrived at a busy labour ward. 'Because I was in the early stages of labour and the ward was full, I was placed in a room at the end of the hall with women whose pregnancies were being monitored, but who weren't in labour,' she says. Her husband had to leave when evening came. 'I'm quiet and don't like to make a fuss, and because everyone was so busy, I wasn't checked on much.' When she was examined the next morning, she was fully dilated and was rushed to the delivery suite. Her daughter was born by vacuum delivery, but Harris retained the placenta. Attempts to remove it manually resulted in haemorrhaging, and she had to be operated upon. She now wonders if her birth experience led to postnatal depression. 'It kicked in when my daughter was six months old and I treated it with medication and counselling,' she says. 'Talking helped release the trauma I'd held on to from the birth.' Looking back, she questions if her complications might have been avoided if her labour had been managed differently. 'If I'd asked for help more or if there had been more staff to check on me, things might have been different.' Click here to read our National Women's Health Survey. The Irish Examiner Women's Health Survey 2025 Ipsos B&A designed and implemented a research project for the Irish Examiner involving a nationally representative sample of n=1,078 women over the age of 16 years. The study was undertaken online with fieldwork conducted between April 30 and May 15, 2025. The sample was quota controlled by age, socio-economic class, region and area of residence to reflect the known profile of women in Ireland based on the census of population and industry agreed guidelines. Ipsos B&A has strict quality control measures in place to ensure robust and reliable findings; results based on the full sample carry a margin of error of +/-2.8%. In other words, if the research was repeated identically results would be expected to lie within this range on 19 occasions out of 20. A variety of aspects were assessed in relation to women's health including fertility, birth, menopause, mental health, health behaviour, and alcohol consumption.
