Hospital plans new £1.5m birthing unit

A £1.5MILLION midwife-led birthing unit is to be built at Warwick Hospital. South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust has said the new unit will open in early 2018.

Bosses said it would offer expectant parents the opportunity to have their babies in a comfortable, homely environment, rather than a more clinical setting.

It will have its own separate entrance, four birthing rooms, with birthing pools available in all of them.

To help create a welcoming and calming environment there will also be separate rooms for parents to relax in, as well as a private garden.

The building and necessary equipment will be paid for by the trust, but a new fundraising appeal to raise £200,000 to fund extra equipment has been launched.

The Birth and Babies appeal — similar to the recent £1million Stratford Hospital Appeal —will pay for things like special baby cribs and stands, rather than standard plastic cots, as well as upgrade the furnishings to make the unit feel like a home-from-home.

The number of babies being born at Warwick has fallen since 2012, from 2,975 to 2,658 in 2015/16.

The figure for the past year will be published next month. Warwick currently offers a consultant obstetric unit at the hospital and community home birthing teams, are expanding their maternity services to offer women more choice on where to deliver their babies.

Jayne Blacklay, director of development at the trust, said: “This is a really exciting development for maternity services in south Warwickshire.

“We recognise how important it is for women to choose where they give birth, and building a midwifery-led unit at Warwick Hospital supports choice, with the added reassurance of a full obstetric unit on site.”

To make a donation to the appeal see www.justgiving.com/fundraising/birthandbabies, or to organise a fundraising event call 01926 495321 ext 8049 or e-mail charity@swft.nhs.uk

A new £12million extension opened at the hospital last year, including a private recovery ward.