SDHB backtracks on birth booking
A Te Anau woman says she is ‘‘gutted’’ after the Southern District Health Board cancelled her booking to give birth at the Lumsden Maternity Centre.
Sarah de Reeper is due to give birth to her second child in March, and on July 24 last year she made a booking with the centre, knowing at that time that its future was hanging in the balance. ‘‘I went to the public meeting in Lumsden before we were pregnant and the DHB [representatives] stood up and said it would honour all bookings if the centre closed.
‘‘I had an incredible birth there with Mason two years ago and wanted to go back there.’’
The board announced in August it was changing the primary birthing unity at Lumsden into a maternal and child hub.
A press release issued on the day the change was announced says ‘‘the transition of Lumsden Maternity Centre to a maternal and child hub will be managed in conjunction with the Northern Southland Health Services Trust, to ensure those women currently booked in for a birth there are able to do so’’.
The centre would become a hub on March 1, and de Reeper is due on March 24, but her booking has been cancelled.
On Wednesday, board primary, strategy and community executive director Lisa Gestro said bookings for birthing in February would be honoured and in recognition an expectant mother may be overdue, it support anyone booked to give birth at Lumsden for two to three weeks into March.
The board did not respond to questions asking how many bookings at Lumsden had been cancelled because of the transition to a hub.
On October 7, nearly two months after the announcement was made, the board contacted de Reeper’s midwife to tell her that her booking at Lumsden would not be honoured.
‘‘We are just gutted . . . As soon as we found out we were pregnant we booked at Lumsden because it has a birthing pool and we had a fantastic experience there,’’ de Reeper said.
Now, de Reeper’s options were to have a home birth at Te Anau or to travel to Winton, the closest primary birthing unit, an hour and a half away.
‘‘It doesn’t have a birthing pool so now I’m going to go and stay with my mum in Invercargill a week out from my due date and go to Southland Hospital.
‘‘I don’t want to have a home birth because I don’t want to palm Mason off to someone when I go into labour and I’m worried that if something goes wrong we’re a long way from help here now.’’
She said her husband works on the Milford Rd and it was possible he may not make it to Invercargill in time for the birth.
‘‘. . . the DHB [representatives] stood up and said it would honour all bookings if the centre closed.’’ Sarah de Reeper
‘‘He’d have a much better chance if we were in Lumsden.’’
De Reeper understands at least two other pregnant women in Te Anau are affected by the closure.
Gestro has previously said Lumsden’s maternal and child hub would include well-equipped rooms available to any midwives caring for women in the area, including urgent care equipment for acute assessment, stabilising and transfers of mothers and, when necessary, babies.
The board was also scheduling maternity workshops for first responders and primary care providers in the Lumsden, Te Anau and Tuatapere areas.
It plans to establish a maternal and child hub in Te Anau.
Gestro said the board expected that to be in place by March, but did not respond to questions about the hub’s location.
It was announced in August that thecentre would be downgraded as part of the board’s Integrated Primary Maternity System of Care, which assessed maternity services throughout Otago and Southland.