The mother of a baby who died at Cavan General Hospital this day last year says it's mind boggling to think that babies are still dying in our maternity hospitals.
An investigation has been launched following the death of a baby at the hospital yesterday afternoon.
It follows the deaths of three babies there between 2012 and 2014.
'Mary' also lost her baby in Cavan General Hospital. She spoke to Newstalk Lunchtime this afternoon:
"We should be celebrating our son's first birthday today. And we're not," she told Jonathan. "It was very heartbreaking to this morning hear that another family is suffering the same devastating blow. It's just getting out of hand, throughout the country... We need to know where it's all going wrong.
"No one can even imagine the pain that [lies] behind the devastation... you need to walk in those shoes to understand it, and sadly we're learning that lesson now.
"To wake up this morning to the news that another family is going through the same thing... I am so angry. I am absolutely heartbroken for them as well as dealing with our own grief," she said.
Mary believes that seeing the same thing 12 months later shows "how badly things need to be changed in the HSE. I firmly believe from management down, things have to be rectified."
She says she doesn't want to 'add any extra fear' to pregnant women, as she knows giving birth can leave people in quite a vulnerable and nervous state already. However she told Jonathan "I would say to people if you're not happy with something, don't be afraid to demand extra answers. If you're not happy with something insist until you're happy. If we could all be just not afraid and intimidated by supposed experts... when your gut is telling you something is wrong and they're not listening".
"We were initially led to believe the review into our baby's death and the management of my care [would be four to five months]," she explained. "And we're 12 months on and we've no answers yet. It adds to your grief and your anger, and at times you think 'have these people forgotten that a real little baby died?' That a mammy was injured and nearly died? They forget that a real little person lost their lives here, and that is the most insulting thing for any family to have to suffer.
"I just hope the HSE will stop dragging people through it for years, and do it efficiently and quickly and lessen the undue burden of grief that doesn't have to be there," she added.
Mary says she wants to see highly skilled people brought in to Cavan maternity service, to reskill people and watch what's going on. She also wants to see up-to-date scanning machines. "To be told that it's a case of economics unfortunately, was highly insulting," she said.
"We don't tar everyone in Cavan with the same brush," she told Jonathan. "There are some wonderful staff down there. I couldn't praise the ICU team enough.
"And there are some wonderful people in maternity too. But there are some where questions need answering," she concluded.
