Birth services at the Helme Chase unit at Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) in Kendal are set to restart on Monday 10 February.
Following a successful recruitment campaign, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust (UHMBT), has more midwives and continues in its recruitment campaign.
Birth services at WGH had to be temporarily suspended in April 2024 due to a shortage of midwives; this reflected a national shortage of midwives in England in 2024.
UHMBT has put robust plans in place to ensure that there will continue to be 24-hour midwifery on-call services for Helme Chase births and home births.
Helme Chase is a midwife-led unit, and women can give birth there 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, supported by a midwife. Midwife-led units are for pregnancies where it is unlikely that there will be any serious complications. All midwives are trained to manage any emergencies which may occur.
Birth services are different to the Maternity services offered by UHMBT at the South Lakes Birth Centre at Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow and at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, which are both consultant-led units. Maternity services at the RLI and FGH have remained open for births during the temporary suspension of birth services at WGH.
Susan Foyle, Director of Midwifery, UHMBT, said: “We are pleased to be restarting birth services at Helme Chase for women and families wishing to have a midwife-led birth. It’s important that women have the choice of where and how they would like to give birth. We are looking forward to welcoming families over the coming months.”
Samantha Connelly, Helme Chase Unit Manager and a midwife by profession, said: “Helme Chase has a real family feel and we pride ourselves on providing safe, personalised care and support throughout pregnancy, birth and beyond. We are delighted to be offering our midwife-led unit at Kendal as a choice of place of birth for families.”
Helme Chase offers antenatal and postnatal services, antenatal education, vaccination clinics, ultrasound scanning and consultant-led clinics. The unit has more than 20 members of staff, including midwives, support workers and ward clerks. It has a birthing pool, mood lighting, birthing balls and slings to support safe active birth.
Further information about the birth services and Maternity services offered by UHMBT is on this link.
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Notes for editors: Helme Chase operates an on-call system out-of-hours Monday to Friday from 8pm to 8am, all day Saturday and Sunday, and Bank Holidays.
Midwifery-led care is defined as care provided to a woman by a single midwife or small group of midwives through pregnancy, birth and the early parenting period.