Leeds General Infirmary (Series 3)
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals Maternity service is one of the largest in the country supporting around 10,000 births each year. The maternity units operate from two main hospital sites, Clarendon Wing at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) and Gledhow Wing at St James’s University Hospital. There is also a community midwifery service providing ante-natal and post-natal care close to home, along with homebirths.
The philosophy of care in the maternity units is to provide safe quality care through effective team working; and we support normal birth having a lower than average caesarean section rate. Water birth facilities are provided at the LGI unit and both units provide active birth classes and midwifery led care.
The units receive referrals for specialist maternity services from the Yorkshire and Humber region. This includes women with complicated care needs such as diabetes, heart conditions, and multiple pregnancies. There is a highly specialised fetal medicine unit at the LGI with Consultants providing expertise on ante-natal screening and conducting complex procedures.
The neonatal unit is a large regional centre that provides care for very small babies born within the region and also babies that require surgery soon after birth. There is paediatric surgery on site at the LGI.
The units have close links with the local universities and support midwifery, and medical education. The service is committed to developing maternity care on a sound evidence base and is involved with local and multi site research projects.
Leeds has a proactive and enthusiastic local Maternity Service Liaison Committee which is key to developing high quality services. We listen to the views of women in our care and are committed to improving their experience and delivering a quality service to all.
Princess Anne, Southampton (Series 1 and 2)
The Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton is a specialist unit looking after women and newborn babies. Almost 6,000 babies are born each year under the hospital’s care, and over 300 staff coordinates the care of these 6,000 mothers, as they choose to give birth at home, at the hospital or at the nearby stand alone birth centre.
Three floors of the hospital are dedicated to caring for women before, during and after birth and their babies. For low-risk births there is a midwife-led birth unit called Broadlands where women give birth in an unmedicalised environment. For women who need medical intervention, for instance if they want an epidural or if they are at risk of complications, they will give birth on the hospital’s labour ward.
The Princess Anne hospital is also home to a highly specialised foetal medicine unit caring for complicated pregnancies, which takes referrals from across the South of England. The hospital also has one of the UK’s largest intensive care units for newborn babies.
Hospital staff are organising a campaign called the ‘Neonatal Unit Kilimanjaro Challenge’ to raise money for the Neonatal Unit, in particular to expand the accommodation available for parents like Emma and Gregg whose son Alfie needed to be cared for on the unit. At the moment there are only 3 such ‘parent rooms’, which means that often parents need to commute many 100’s of miles daily/weekly. To get involved please visit the hospital website.
