Eight maternal deaths took place at maternity units around the country last year, seven more than the figure recorded by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), it has emerged.

Dublin's Rotunda Hospital recorded two maternal deaths in 2012, according to hospital Master Dr Sam Coulter Smith.

This brings to eight the number of of deaths among mothers attending the hospital in the three years 2010 to 2012.

A third pregnant woman who originally booked at the Rotunda last year subsequently went to a UK clinic for an abortion but died in London from complications of the termination. She would be included in UK, rather than the Rotunda's mortality figures, Dr Coulter Smith told irishhealth.com

The two deaths recorded at the Rotunda in 2012 means that based on information available to date, a total of eight maternal deaths are known to have occurred in women in the care of Irish maternity units last year.

These are the death of Savita Halappanavar at University Hospital Galway, three deaths recorded by Cork University Maternity Hospital, two deaths reported to have taken place at the Coombe in Dublin and the two deaths now confirmed at the Rotunda.

A clearer national picture on maternal deaths last year will not be known until all the maternity hospitals and units that produce clinical reports publish their 2012 results in the coming weeks. However, not all units publish annual clinical report detailing their clinical activity. The three Dublin maternity units will publish their confirmed clinical figures for 2012 before the end of the month.

Dr Coulter Smith, in an interview with irishealth.com, said the two deaths recorded among mothers attending the Rotunda last year were classified as indirect maternal deaths. Indirect maternal mortalities are where women have pre-existing medical conditions or conditions developing during pregnancy aggravated by the pregnancy.

Direct maternal deaths are defined as being due to obstetric complications before, during and after labour or from interventions or omissions during this period.

In 2011, one of the three maternal deaths recorded at the Rotunda was classified as direct, while again in 2010, one of the three deaths was classified as directly related to obstetric causes.

Despite the relatively high number of maternal deaths at the hospital in recent years, Dr Coulter Smith says this does not necessarily indicate a trend. "Maternal mortalities are rare; they are almost always one-off events. You rarely get the same set of circumstances occurring twice. It is often difficult to establish trends. You need to look at much larger numbers to see what those trends are."

Under official Central Statistics Office criteria, the maternal death rate in Ireland is only around four per 100,000 births, whereas using the wider criteria used by maternity units and the recently established Maternal Death Enquiry (MDE Ireland) system, the rate is around eight per 100,000.

The CSO has recorded only one maternal death occurring nationally last year, believed to be the death of Savita Halappanavar at University Hospital Galway. However at least seven other maternal deaths are now known to have taken place last year, based on information to date from maternity units.

Even taking this into account, however, our maternal death rate is still regarded as low by international standards.

However, there are variations in the number of deaths reported depending on the classification used, and we do not have a clear picture of mortalities reported from maternity units, as no national figures on the total number of deaths and where they occurred are produced by the HSE, with some HSE units not even producing annual clinical reports.

The latest MDE Ireland stats, published last year, show that that 25 mothers who attended maternity units with their pregnancies between 2009 and 2011 died. However, these statistics did not give a yearly breakdown of deaths or their location.

In the interview with irishhealth.com, Dr Coulter Smith said the perinatal (infant) mortality results from the Rotunda were very good.

He said maternity services in Ireland have been a flagship for the Irish health service in producing world-class results from what you could not possibly call world class facilities.

Read the full interview with Dr Sam Coulter Smith here

CUMH gives causes of maternal deaths