Anguish of mums-to-be in switch
WOMEN TOLD BIRTHS WILL TAKE PLACE AT DIFFERENT HOSPITAL
MUMS-TO-BE are having to change their birth plans as maternity units relocate due to the pandemic.
Ingleside Birth Centre in Salford is closing for births for the next three months. Women will instead have to go to Royal Bolton Hospital.
Births at Macclesfield District General are being temporarily relocated to neighbouring maternity units.
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust says the closure is ‘not a decision we take easily, as we understand that this will be disappointing for the women and their families who were booked to have their baby there.’ One of those women was Abigail Smith, who is 37 weeks pregnant with her second child and ‘absolutely devastated.’ She said: “When you get a plan in your mind anyway it’s upsetting to change, but when it’s about one of the most important days of your life it’s just horrible.”
Abigail, from Astley, said: “You sit for months planning that day, to then at 37 weeks be told you have to change your plans is so scary. All the midwives at your appointments and antenatal classes are so pro-Ingleside and paint a lovely picture of a calm birth. To be then told you can’t go there and now have to birth at hospital where the chances are you can’t have a water birth, as there’s only two pools, is just heartbreaking and has made me so anxious about everything.”
Abigail, 31, also mum to 10-year-old Alfie, said she was advised to have a home birth, but was then told the chances of that are low because of staff shortages. “I just feel totally overwhelmed by the fact I basically have no control over anything to do with my labour,” she said. Antenatal appointments are continuing at Ingleside, and it will continue to be used as a community hub unless the situation develops.
The trust said: “This is not a decision we take easily, as we understand that this will be disappointing for the women and their families who were booked to have their baby there.
“During this period of increased pressure on NHS staff, the temporary move of all planned births to the Princess Anne Maternity Unit at Royal Bolton Hospital will free up our midwives to ensure they are delivering the best possible care.”
In Macclesfield, the move took effect from March 25, with births temporarily suspended at the site for six months.
Bosses say it is necessary because East Cheshire NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, has a small numbers of anaesthetists who would be unable to provide cover both for maternityrelated procedures and an expected rise in patients being treated for COVID-19.