Maternity Care in Bath & North East Somerset
Volunteers in Bath & North East Somerset
Kasia - Social & Digital Media Co-ordinator
Kasia Mola is a mum of two boys. After experiencing birth trauma with her first born and navigating PTSD, she gained a passion for everything pregnancy, birth and beyond. Kasia feels driven to help parents advocate for themselves through informed decision making, believing everyone can have an empowering experience of their maternity journey, whatever that may be. Feel free to reach out to her if you’d like to share your maternity and health visiting experiences.
Email: kasiamola.mvp@gmail.com
Kirsty
Kirsty lives in Paulton and is a Mum of two. She is passionate about supporting parents and is keen to hear the experiences of those who have accessed infant feeding support in recent years as well as the experiences of disabled parents and parents of children with disabilities.
Email: orlandokirsty@gmail.com
Chaya - BaNES & RUH Lead
Chaya lives in Bath and has two daughters. She started as the MNVP Lead in September 2019. Her role will be to support the volunteers across the Bath & NE Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) areas who will be ‘on the ground’ listening to families in their local communities. With their support, they will be mapping themes that come up which will then be presented to the Local Maternity & Neonatal System (LMNS) so that true co-production of maternity services take place.
Email: chaya.tagore@nhs.net
Obstetric Unit - Bath Birthing Centre (BBC), Royal United Hospitals (RUH)
The RUH Bath Birthing Centre at the Princess Anne Wing of the Royal United Hospital has eleven rooms for giving birth. They care for women and birthing people during their labour and birth and also those who are having a planned caesarean along with more complex antenatal and postnatal women. All birthing rooms at the Bath Birthing Centre have en-suite facilities, for the comfort and convenience of all parents. They are fully equipped with modern equipment to care for both mother and baby, including emergency equipment to ensure the safety of women and babies in their care.
Birth Centre (Freestanding Midwifery units)
Frome Birthing Centre, Chippenham Birthing Centre provide card throughout pregnancy, birth & beyond. Paulton Maternity and Trowbridge Maternity are no longer places to birth but you can go there for antenatal and postnatal care.
https://www.facebook.com/ruhmaternity/
Birth Centre (Alongside Midwifery Unit)
The project for the alongside birth centre at RUH is in progress.
Home Birth
A key recommendation of Better Births was that personalised care should be central to maternity services; centred on the woman, her baby and her family, based around their needs and their decisions, where they have genuine choice, informed by unbiased information and central to ensuring that women receive the best care possible.
If you have a straightforward pregnancy, and both you and the baby are well, you might choose to give birth at home. In England and Wales, just over 1 in 50 pregnant women give birth at home.
Giving birth is generally safe wherever you choose to have your baby.
For women having their first baby, home birth slightly increased the incidence of serious problems for the baby – including issues that might affect the baby’s quality of life, and rarely, death – from 5 in 1000 for a hospital birth to 9 in 1,000 for a home birth.
For women having their second or subsequent baby, a planned home birth is as safe as having your baby in hospital or a midwife-led unit (known as Birth Centres)
Bath Homebirth Group: https://www.instagram.com/bath_homebirth_group/
The Dyson Centre, NICU
The neonatal unit provides care for premature and sick term newborn babies. Approximately 10% of all babies will need admission to a neonatal unit, commonly because of prematurity, infection, breathing difficulties or feeding problems.
The unit works as part of a wider network, with the main intensive care being delivered in Bristol if your baby is extremely preterm or needing surgery, along with some sick term babies requiring further intervention. Once these babies are stable they will complete their care in this local neonatal unit.
The unit has 21 cots, and we have facilities for parents including 4 double en suite bedrooms, a breast milk expressing room, a parents coffee room, quiet room, a play area for siblings and a garden.
https://www.swneonatalnetwork.co.uk/neonatal-unit-information/bath/
Health Visiting
Health Visitors are qualified nurses or midwives with a specialist qualification in public health for children, young people and families. They work alongside families offering support and information around parenthood and early parenting, from pregnancy right through to when your child starts school. The service offers support for all parents of all children (0-5), whatever their circumstances. We’d love to hear more about your experience with health visiting in your area. Please fill in our postnatal survey.
https://bathneshealthandcare.nhs.uk/childrens/health-visiting/
