Hospital reinstates home birth service

Pregnant women living in Tameside and Glossop will now be able to give birth at home again with support from hospital staff.

The maternity team at Tameside Hospital are reinstating their home birthing service, after it was paused due to the coronavirus. 

Women can choose to have their baby in the comfort of their own home, in addition to the Midwifery-led Acorn Birthing Centre and the consultant-led maternity unit at the Ashton-based hospital. 

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, says the service will be "safely managed by individual assessments, use of infection prevention procedures and the wearing of PPE; the maintenance of social distancing as far as possible when providing care and the provision of appropriate resources to adhere fully to all national infection prevention and control guidance." 

In England and Wales, just over one in 50 pregnant women give birth at home. Giving birth is generally safe wherever women choose to have their baby and giving birth at home can make women feel more relaxed as they are in familiar surroundings.

Kerry Reede Field, who is Head of Midwifery, Children and Young People at the Trust, said: "We are really pleased to be able to reinstate this service to give the women at Tameside and Glossop a further choice of birth environment.

"If you are pregnant and think this is something you might be interested in please speak to your named midwife to see if this is an option for you." 

Visiting is still restricted in the maternity unit at the hospital but the Trust say it is being regularly reviewed and a phased return will be put in place "as soon as it is deemed safe to do so".