A NEW midwife-led delivery unit with a birthing pool in every room is set to make the experience of giving birth safer, and more homely, for up to 200 women each year.
A NEW midwife-led delivery unit with a birthing pool in every room is set to make the experience of giving birth safer, and more homely, for up to 200 women each year.
Although still in its early stages health chiefs at the James Paget University Hospital, Gorleston, say the three-room scheme will help women to deliver their babies naturally.
The facility and reception area could be created opposite the existing delivery suite, where 2,300 babies are born every year.
The planned expansion would see state-of-the-art facilities, such as a birthing pool, in each room for the 200 mothers who are expected to use them to give birth naturally every year.
Carol Mutton, head of midwifery at the JPH, said: “The new midwifery-led birthing unit will offer greater choice for expectant mothers, encouraging normal birth in homely surroundings, whilst reducing Caesarean sections.”
The building work, funded by the Trust, is likely to take place next year, and will also see alterations to the delivery suite, including reducing the number of delivery rooms slightly to make the others larger and more comfortable for mums-to-be.
It will be staffed by existing resources at the Trust, following funding from the local Primary Care Trust to provide additional midwives and support workers.
It is set to be introduced in response to recommendations in the national Maternity Matters Report that all hospitals should have a midwifery-led birthing unit.
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