Maternity unit changes at Winchester (From This is Hampshire)

Maternity unit changes at Winchester

12:23pm Monday 10th September 2007

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PLANS are shaping up for a new midwife-led unit that could transform the experience of women giving birth in Winchester.

The proposals are for six single rooms in a purpose-built unit in the Florence Portal building of the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

The scheme was highlighted at the annual general meeting of Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust last Wednesday (September 5).

Midwife-led units support low-risk women to give birth naturally without medical interventions such as Caesarians or epidurals for pain relief.

They aim to provide a more homely, less clinical environment than the labour ward.

The new unit would include a second birthing pool and possibly sofa beds so partners could stay overnight if women give birth late evening or early hours of the morning.

Head of midwifery Janie Pearman said: "I want the rooms to be just a much nicer environment. And I would like the partner to be able to stay overnight.

"At the moment I think it is just awful we evict partners and they have to go home. My background is community midwifery. "There is just something lovely about doing a home birth and tucking up mum, dad and baby and leaving them as a family."

At present, women giving birth at the RHCH move from the maternity ward to the labour ward and then to another room with their baby.

But in the new unit, mothers would labour, give birth and recover in the same room - and with the same staff.

Mrs Pearman said: "The ethos will be that women will not stay there a huge amount of time. They may just rest six hours and go home."

She said the midwives would visit mothers and babies at home after they left the unit.

Maternity support workers would also do home visits to help with breast feeding, for example.

The trust currently delivers about 3,000 babies a year. Of these about 4.5 per cent are home births with the rest delivered at the maternity wards of the RHCH or the midwife-led unit at Andover.

There is a staffing level of the equivalent of 90 full time midwives though many are part-time Managers say the new Winchester midwife-led unit is likely to open by the end of 2008.

Meanwhile the maternity ward at the RHCH is to be redecorated with newly painted walls, fresh curtains and new flooring.

Mrs Pearman said: "In between contractions, we have been asking women to look at colour charts and samples to help pick out paints and curtain fabric!"

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