Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust has welcomed the publication by the Department of Health of ‘Maternity Matters’ which sets out a number of national choice guarantees which will be available for all women by the end of 2009:

·          Choice of how to access maternity care

·          Choice of type of antenatal care

·          Choice of place of birth – depending on their circumstances, women and their partners will be able to choose between three different options.  These are a home birth, a birth in a local facility, including a hospital, under the care of a midwife or birth in a hospital supported by a local maternity care team including midwives, anaesthetists and consultant obstetricians

·          Choice of place of postnatal care.

Eileen Nolan, Associate Director for Maternity Services and a practicing midwife herself says: “The maternity service at Ashford and St. Peter’s is already providing much of this choice such as:

·          midwife care or care with the GP or Consultant care for those who have specific needs;

·          home birth;

·          birth in a ‘home from home’ facility; and

·          birth in the hospital labour ward.

“Many women also access midwife care directly without going through the GP but many prefer to discuss the choices with their GP and then be referred for care.   We work in partnership with women to try to deliver the choice of care which is right for them.   Some of the proposals in the document will require investment and some will not.  As a busy maternity serviceswe are looking forward to working with the Trust, the Surrey Primary Care Trust and the local Maternity Services Liaison Committee over the next two years in an effort to achieve the commitments by 2009.”

The Maternity Unit at St. Peter’s Hospital helps with the delivery of over 4,000 babies each year.    Midwives from the service assisted with 77 home births in 2006.   It is co-located with the Level 3 (highest) Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) which provides care for around 90 per cent of the ill and premature babies born in Surrey and neighbouring areas.