Two of these hospitals - Lusíadas and Luz – saw more babies born during this period than the Maternidade Alfredo da Costa (MAC) and even more than the Centro Materno-Infantil do Norte (CMIN), which in recent years has positioned itself as the largest birthing block in the country, according to a report by Público.

In total, in the Lisbon region, this year there were 20,837 births in SNS hospitals, while the three largest private hospitals alone carried out 8,020 births.

According to data made available by the hospitals to Público, Lusíadas Lisboa surpassed the barrier of three thousand deliveries at the end of October – it had 3,014, while Luz totalled 2,747 deliveries until October. At CUF Descobertas, 2,269 deliveries were recorded.

For its part, the Maternidade Alfredo da Costa had 2,609 births in the same period and, among the public, only three exceeded two thousand births: Santa Maria (2,195), Amadora-Sintra (2,167) and Garcia de Orta (2,036).