Nurses and midwives are gathering for their annual conference as fresh details emerge about staffing levels at one Irish maternity unit.
Internal HSE documents, seen by the Irish Daily Mail, show that at one point in January, there was one midwife overseeing 70 births in Portlaoise.
The ratio currently stands at one midwife per fifty births, and the recommended standard internationally is one per twenty-nine-and-a-half.
The HSE says the hospital is managing activity levels within this year's resources.
Delegates at the three day Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation conference in Kilkenny will be focusing on the issue of safe care.
They want to get the message across that more nurses equals safe patients.
INMO General Secretary Liam Doran says it's one of their top concerns:
