Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre at Burnley Hospital is doing pioneering work in offering personalised care to women and their babies.
I toured the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust site with my Rossendale and Darwen neighbour Andy MacNae MP, where we saw the dedication of staff and the leading work they’re carrying out.
From pre-natal through to maternity, post-natal and NICU, it was clear that Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre is not a standard district hospital. For a start, its outcomes are among the best in the country and it offers the best obstetric training in the UK, as voted by trainees.
But beyond the measurable impact, there was something more. A real caring culture exists that offers a supportive working environment for staff and personalised care for the women and their families that use the centre. Staff recognise that every woman’s childbirth journey is completely different and should be treated as such.
Another impressive initiative is a maternity triage unit, launching this month, where women can turn up should they have any concerns or needs at any stage in their pregnancy. It’s a centre staffed by midwives and professionals who are trained to offer high standards of care and spot issues that patients don’t necessarily reveal.
Elsewhere the hospital is fortunate enough to have a trained bereavement midwife caring for those families experiencing baby loss, who we met on the tour.
Two private bedrooms are set aside for these women and numbers are increasing every year, but sadly fundraising is needed to keep services like this available. The charity Friends of Serenity, supporting those who experience baby loss, is currently raising money to refurbish both rooms.
We ended our tour at the NICU, which has a track record of enabling babies to come off the ventilator quicker than the average time. Thanks to Director of Midwifery Tracy Thompson and Martin Maher, Clinical Director of Midwifery, for showing me round.
