New Family Birthing Centre set to deliver for mums to be

New Family Birthing Centre set to deliver for mums to be

Construction for the new Family Birthing Centre at Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) is well underway with the state-of-the-art birthing facility due to be open in September.

It has been designed in consultation with a group of mums who have utilised FSH maternity services in the past few years.

The centre will feature three birthing suites, two of which will have inbuilt birthing pools and the other a portable pool. There are specially designed birthing cubes, day beds and family lounge facilities.

Extensive research into what promotes an active birth by the FSH midwifery team and advisory group has led to a space where colour, shapes and physical surroundings all come together to promote good birth outcomes. The Family Birthing Centre is designed to help make women feel comfortable, relaxed and at home.

The new family birthing centre will provide women in the south metropolitan catchment access to midwifery-led care, through their antenatal, labour, birth and postnatal periods, currently not available south of the river.

The centre is designed to provide care to women with low-risk pregnancies to have a more home-like, holistic birthing experience.

Being co-located within FSH, which has a birth suite and a neonatal intensive care unit, will enable swifter access to a higher level of care should complications during pregnancy or birth develop.

“This is a testimony to the success of the existing Family Birth Centre at King Edward Memorial Hospital which has done a fantastic job for the past 27 years,” saidĀ Health Minister Roger Cook.

“Having a sister birth centre at Fiona Stanley means that women living in our southern suburbs will soon be able to access this model of care much closer to where they live.

“It is exciting to see this centre come to fruition through the voices of so many consumers, working with health professionals to provide women and families a more intimate birth option.

“This is another example of the McGowan Government putting patients first.”

Women’s Interests Minister Simone McGurk said, “The overwhelming feedback I get from women is that the existing family birthing centre is an important option for women and families. I am pleased more women will soon have this as a birthing choice.

“This family birthing centre will provide women with a homely environment and means partners and children have the option to be involved in the birthing process.”