By Shirley Farmer 
Another 2,617 children were born in Portugal. See parents’ favorite names
71,511 newborns were registered from January to October. These numbers are close to those that prevailed in the years before the epidemic.
Birth development
The increase in birth rates was not reflected in a change in the most common names chosen by parents for newborns: since 2019, Maria (girl) and Francisco (boy) have become the names most chosen by parents in Portugal. In fact, Maria has been the most chosen female name since 2005 – and that year she “unseated” Anna from first place. As for the boys, in the years leading up to 2019, the leadership was divided between the names Martim, Thiago, Afonso, Joao and Santiago.
12 maternity wards and 18 pediatric emergency departments with restrictions
This week will be busy with restrictions in 12 OB/GYN units and 18 pediatric emergency units. In some cases, services are closed only at night, but there are hospitals that will remain without emergency obstetric services for several days, as is the case in Leiria (closed from Thursday), Llores (closed at 8 pm on Thursday), Amadora Sintra (closed this day Monday and reopens on Friday) or Barreiro (closed until at least Sunday). According to the deliberations of the National Health Service Executive Directorate, the most affected pediatric emergencies are those in Barrero and Chaves (closed all week), while the pediatric emergencies in Barcelos, Torres Vedras, São Francisco Xavier, Amadora Sintra and Almada are always closed. Closed at night. Those in Peñafiel, Santa María da Feira and Llores, in addition to closing at night, are also closed on weekends.
11 births, less than a thousand births
In the first ten months of the year, there were 11 maternity hospitals affiliated with the SNS Foundation, where less than a thousand births were performed. Nordeste (344), Norte Alentejano (318) and Castelo Branco (317) were the hospitals with the lowest number of births, just over one per day.
Automatic family doctor userAs of October, 13,749 newborns had been registered in the Nasr Utility project. Registration is done automatically by the institution with the birth block, in the list of users of the mother’s and/or father’s family doctor, with priority given to the mother, if the parents are registered on different lists.
High rate of caesarean sections inside
The caesarean section rate in NHS birth centers was 32% from January to October: 17,560 births were performed out of a total of 54,939 births. In four hospitals, the caesarean section rate exceeds 40%, most notably CH Trás-os-Montes, Alto Douro (49.2%) and CH Nordeste (43%). Evora and Covilha are the others above 40%.