About Us

Ireland South Women and Infants Directorate:

Established in 2017, the Ireland South Women & Infants Directorate is the first and only collaboration of its kinds in Ireland. It was created to foster partnership and mutual support between the four maternity units in the South/Southwest region.  

For the first time, services for women and infants across this region are brought together under a single, unified clinical leadership and governance structure. A multidisciplinary team of clinicians and midwives plays a central role in shaping care at the highest levels.

This pioneering Directorate became possible following the creation of the South/South West Hospital Group in 2013. It encompasses all the maternity and neonatal units within the group — University Hospital Waterford, Tipperary University Hospital, University Hospital Kerry, and Cork University Maternity Hospital.

Together, these units work as one, ensuring high-quality, consistent care for women, infants, and families across Ireland South.

Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH)

Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) is a 150-bed tertiary referral centre for Maternity, Neonatology, and Gynaecology. Located on the campus of Cork University Hospital, it serves as a major hub for specialist care within the Health Service Executive Southern region.

CUMH brings together Obstetric, Gynaecology, and Neonatology services under one roof and manages approximately 7,000 births annually. As a tertiary referral centre, it plays a vital role in providing expert care to women and infants across the region.

CUMH also serves as a clinical teaching site for both undergraduate and postgraduate student midwives and nurses, in partnership with University College Cork (UCC). 

CUMH is a part of the HSE South West health region.

First Floor

You enter the building on the first floor. The main reception, shop, café, Emergency Room and day services are located on this floor. Day services incorporate the ultrasound department, fetal assessment unit, outpatient facilities, midwives’ clinic, and support services such as physiotherapy, social work and dietetics.

Ground Floor

The birthing suite has 12 individual delivery rooms, one of which has a birth pool. The birth pool can be used for pain relief in the first stage of labour, but not for the birth of your baby. It is available to women who have identified ‘low risk’ pregnancies. A ‘home from home’ room is available to women who wish to give birth in a less formal environment in the hospital. The theatre suite has four operating theatres; two obstetric theatres for Caesarean sections and two gynaecology theatres. This floor also has a recovery room and a high dependency unit where we look after women with pregnancy complications. The neonatal unit has 46 cots, six designated intensive care cots, six high dependency cots and 34 special care cots.

Second, Third & Fourth Floors

CUMH has 126 maternal beds with a selection of rooms – four bed, two bed and single, all with ensuite facilities.