The death of a foreign national living in Ireland following an abortion at a London clinic last year is detailed in the latest annual clinical report from Dublin's Rotunda Hospital.

The woman had reportedly been refused an abortion at the Rotunda, but was told this was not legally permitted. The hospital does not refer to the abortion request in its report, just published.

While the death is included in the Rotunda report, it is not included in the hospital's official statistics for 2012 maternal deaths, as while the woman was booked as a patient at the hospital, the death is being included in UK statistics as she died in the London area.

The Rotunda report says the women was African and aged 31. She had previously given birth to one child in Ireland, but also had a past history of stillborn twins and a spontaneous miscarriage.

The report said the woman had a past history of multiple fibroids and postnatal depression. She was booked into the Rotunda when she was 19 weeks pregnant.

The report states "(She) was considering elective termination of pregnancy in the UK and travelled to the UK for same. Patient RIP as a result of complication of termination of pregnancy in the UK."

It was recently reported in the media that the woman died hours after the termination took place at a Marie Stopes Clinic in London in January of last year.

A file on the woman's death was passed to the UK Crown Prosecution Service.

The woman's husband has said he was frustrated at the lack of progress in investigating his wife's case.

He said he had been told by UK police authorities that his wife died of a cardiac arrest following major blood loss.

It was reported that while the woman's life was not at risk when she siought an abortion, her condition did raise the risk of miscarriage.

The woman was reported to be around 20 weeks pregnant when she had the termination in London, which indicates that she travelled to the UK very shortly after booking in to the Rotunda.

Meanwhile, the Rotunda report confirms that two maternal deaths occurred at the hospital last year in women under its care.

In one case, according to the report, a 34 year-old woman pregnant with twins was discovered dead at the cliffs in Howth, Co.Dublin when she was just over 35 weeks pregnant, shortly after she went missing. "A coroner's postmortem delivered an open verdict", the report states.

According to the report, the woman, who had two children, had a pregnancy scan at 34 weeks which revealed well-grown healthy babies.

The Rotunda report notes that the woman had been attending the mental health liaison team.

The Coroner's inquest was told that the woman's husband was anxious that mental health notes should be shared with antenatal teams in future, as this was not done in this case at the Rotunda.

Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said he would write to the Board of the Rotunda to pass on the family's comments.

The inquest was told by the hospital that the patient's psychiatric team notes were kept separate from the antenatal team in order to maintain confidentiality. The Coroner said while there were indications of suicide, it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

The second maternal death included in the Rotunda's statistics was of a 34-year old woman who had had an uneventful obstetric history and no past history of significant medical issues.

She gave birth to a baby girl last year after an uneventful delivery, and had been teated for mild hypertension. She was brought into a general hospital by ambulance three months post-delivery with 'collapse secondary to cardiac arrest'.

The report says a coroner's case and inquest was awaited.

The Rotunda report said both maternal deaths of patients in its care were 'indirect' as opposed to 'direct' maternal deaths.

An indirect death is where it is related to a previous existing disease or a disease that developed during pregnancy and which are not due to direct obstetric causes, but are aggravated by the effects of the pregnancy.

A direct maternal death is where it has resulted from obstetric complications of pregnancy as a result of interventions, omissions, incorrect treatment or from a chain of events resulting from these.

The HSE recently revealed that there were 10 maternal deaths nationally last year, including that of Savita Halappanavar, and 12 in 2011.

Rotunda Master Dr Sam Coulter Smith, writing in the clinical report, says the current level of activity at the hospital is unsustainable and clinical risks are arising from this.

HSE confirms 10 maternal deaths in 2012

Rotunda Master speaks out