Alfredo da Costa Maternity, the “institution where most people are born in Portugal”, turns 90
More than 600,000 children were born at Maternidade Alfredo da Costa (MAC), in Lisbon, over its 90 years, which this Monday is being celebrated, and foreign pregnant women already represent 32% of births currently taking place.
From December 5, 1932, when they opened their doors for the first time, until November 30 of this year, 605,198 pieces were produced at MAC, indicated to the Lusa agency by the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Lisboa Central (CHULC).
From the beginning of this year until the end of November, 2,859 children were born in this maternity hospital, with 49,036 medical consultations – 15,566 initial consultations and 33,470 subsequent consultations – and 5,764 nursing consultations.
“The number of foreign mothers who give birth at MAC has been increasing. In 2017, 80% of pregnant women were Portuguese, a percentage that currently stands at 68%”, said the same source.
MAC, which belongs to the hospital center that also includes the São José, Curry Cabral, Santo António dos Capuchos, Santa Marta, D. Estefânia hospitals, “has been able to accompany and lead innovation and good practices” in areas such as medically assisted procreation , maternal fetal medicine and the recent Integrated Responsibility Center for Fetal Medicine and Surgery, he said.
This center, the first of its kind in the country, opened in June, allows surveillance during pregnancy to all pregnant women who are at increased risk of maternal and fetal pathology, whether or not they belong to the area of influence of this hospital centre.
Inaugurated on May 31, 1932 named after the doctor who fought for its creation, MAC opened its doors for the first time on December 5 of the same year, with an initial capacity of 300 beds, 250 of which were for obstetrics and 50 to gynecology.
Since then, it has taken a path that has consolidated it as the “institution where most people are born in Portugal”, despite facing, in recent years, difficulties in the number of health professionals to respond to requests, similar to other institutions of the National Health Service .
In 2017, for example, there were “temporary disturbances” in obstetric emergency care due to the lack of response capacity and the number of professionals in the medical and nursing teams, while, in 2019, the constraints were constitution of the scales of anesthesiologists.
In the summer of this year, a peak of influence meant that the MAC temporarily did not accept elderly pregnant women through the Centro de Orientação de Doentes Urgentes (CODU), since it was receiving many pregnant women from the various areas of Lisbon, including the south bank. from the Tagus.
In recent months, several emergency obstetrics and gynecology services and parts of the block in various parts of the country had to close for certain periods or operated with hospitalization, due to the difficulty of hospitals in completing the service rosters of specialist doctors.
In recent years, MAC has also been at risk of closing its doors, which was ruled out in 2016, when the Southern Administrative Central Court declared the action relating to its closure to be extinct.
The decision to keep the MAC operating came as a result of an injunction filed in 2013 by a group of citizens to avoid the closure of the maternity hospital decided by the then Government.