Nearly one-in-three mothers who gave birth at Dublin's Coombe Hospital last year were born outside Ireland.

A similar figure for foreign-born mothers was recorded at the Rotunda Hospital for 2011.

According to the Coombe's latest annual clinical report, just published the 31.6% figure for mothers born outside ethis country this was the highest percentage over the past seven years.

The report says communication difficulties were reported in 6% of mothers at booking, while nearly 5% of mothers were over 40, the highest figure in seven years.

The Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Dr Sam Coulter Smith said yesterday that communication issues with maternity patients for whom English might not be their first language puts them into a higher risk category.

The Coombe report also shows that 14.2% of women attending the hospital last year were current smokers, while just under 1% were taking illicit drugs or methadone at the time of their booking.

The induction rate at the Coombe was 33.3% last year, the highest in seven years, while the rate of of caesarean section, at 27.7% was also the highest in seven years.

The report says 2011 was one of the busiest years in the Coombe's history, with 8,536 mothers delivering 8,709 infants.

Meanwhile the Rotunda's latest clinical report shows a caesarean section rate last year of 29.1% while the National Maternity Hospital's (Holles Street) was 21.4%.

A record 9,319 babies were born at the Rotunda last year, while 9,549 were delivered at Holles Street.

Around one-in-three of the mothers attending the Rotunda last year were also born outside Ireland while the figure for Holles Street was 26%.

As reported on irishhealth.com earlier this week, there was one maternal death at the Coombe last year, recorded as being due to a sudden unexplained death in epilepsy. The woman who died was 32 years old and from Poland.

She collapsed at home at 38 weeks gestation and gave birth to a stillborn baby girl after a caesarean section. Attempts to resuscitate the mother were unsuccessful, according to the Coombe report.

The mother had had a total of three seizures during pregnancy and was on anti-epilepsy medication.