Is sad that Ellen Coyne has to report that there has been another maternal death. It's more important than ever that you discuss this issue with family and friends and encourage them to sign this petition also. This link needs a subscription for the whole article. However below is the full text: ‘Automatic inquests for maternal deaths’ plea Ellen Coyne, The Times (Ireland) 2 April 2016 A campaign group has reiterated calls for automatic inquests into deaths in maternity hospitals to improve transparency in the Health Service Executive. There have been two maternal deaths in Irish hospitals in the past four months. Tracey Fitzpatrick, 36, died on Easter Monday in St Luke’s hospital in Kilkenny after giving birth to her third son, Max. A post-mortem examination found that she died from a post-partum haemorrhage. Her death has been classed as a serious reportable event and is the subject of an internal review. Senior staff from Dublin maternity hospitals are expected to be involved in the investigation which will last several months. Maureen Courtney, 35, a mother of three from Longford, died at Sligo University hospital on December 20. The primary school teacher had been transferred to the hospital days after giving birth in Mullingar. The Elephant Collective, which represents the families of women who died shortly after childbirth, is calling for the option of an inquest to be available to every family affected by a maternal death. There were eight inquests into maternal deaths between 2008 and 2013, all resulting in a medical misadventure verdict. In many cases, families had to fight for years to secure a hearing. “It is absolutely vital that maternal inquests are automatically available to any family that wants one. How else are we going to know if lessons are being learnt from hospitals? We have no other way, and there is not a lot of transparency available for families who find themselves in this awful situation,” Jo Murphy-Lawless, a spokeswoman for the Elephant Collective and lecturer at Trinity College Dublin’s school of nursing and midwifery, said. “Two maternal deaths in four months is worrying. A lot of the time the only way we can raise this issue with politicians is by getting TDs to raise parliamentary questions for us. Either way, we need the Dail back as soon as possible to address this serious issue.” The State Claims Agency said that maternity services were the source of more court cases against the HSE than any other kind of clinical care. The state spent €58 million on legal challenges relating to maternity care in 2014, more than half the amount for all clinical care cases combined. This was an increase of 80 per cent since 2010. Campaigners said that the Central Statistics Office figures on maternal deaths were poorly recorded and did not consider all cases. Maternal Death Enquiry Ireland, an academic group based at University College Cork, published a report in February last year which claimed to have recorded 38 maternal deaths between 2009 and 2012, four times as many as the CSO. Clare Daly, the independent TD for Dublin North, attempted to pass legislation to ensure that any maternal death automatically resulted in an inquest. It had cross-party support, but failed to become law before the Dáil was dissolved for the general election. Ms Daly had argued that automatic inquests would save the state money as well as saving women’s lives. “At the moment, a mistake is made and then compounded by not being learnt from. It’s horrible to say that this would save the HSE money when there are human lives involved too, but they should support this because it makes economic sense, too,” Ms Daly said. Frances Fitzgerald, the justice minister, had said that there were “strong arguments” for automatic inquests after maternal deaths, but would have preferred a legal requirement to report maternal deaths to a coroner.