Newcastle Birthing Centre

Newcastle Birthing Centre update

The Newcastle Birthing Centre is temporarily closed however our delivery suite remains open at all times and our team are doing all they can to meet families wishes and preferences for their birthing environment.

We are welcoming new team members in October and November, and will provide a further update in December, including a date for reopening the services.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. If you have questions or would like to talk to someone about your care, please don’t hesitate to ask your midwife, or Connie at [email protected]

Newcastle Birthing Centre (NBC) is the largest birthing centre in the North East. It is an alongside birthing centre which means it sits on the same site as the consultant led delivery suite. In fact, it is just one floor away.

Newcastle Birthing Centre is on Level 3 of the Leazes Wing. It is directly on your left hand side as you come through the main doors.

Facilities

10 birthing rooms, 5 of which are pool rooms
An assessment room
Hot meals which can be provided at any time of day or night
An en-suite bathroom in each birthing room (some have baths with showers overhead, others have showers only)
Free TV with Freeview in each birthing room
Birthing balls, floor mats, birthing couches and birthing stools
Dimmer switches and air conditioning in each birthing room

Your journey will usually start in the assessment room. We can see you to assess you for labour or if think your waters have broken at 37 weeks or more. If we discover anything of concern during your assessment, we may transfer you to the maternity assessment unit for further investigation.

Once it is time to stay within the hospital, your midwife will ask you if you’d like to use the pool for labour and /or birth.

If you need to transfer from the Newcastle Birthing Centre to the delivery suite, for any reason the process only takes a few minutes. We transfer you to the delivery suite using the nearest accessible lifts.

In an emergency we are able to access the most appropriate medical help for you and your baby.

Criteria for the Newcastle Birthing Centre

For us to recommend the Birthing Centre as a safe place for you to deliver your baby, we have several basic criteria:

Be pregnant with 1 baby
Baby in the head down position at the start of labour
You are having a low risk pregnancy or there is a documented plan in your notes that says you can give birth at the Newcastle Birthing Centre
Be ‘term’ at the start of your labour – between 37+0 and 42+0 weeks
If it is your first baby, to have a BMI below 35 at 28 weeks of pregnancy
If it is your second baby or more, to have a BMI below 40 at 28 weeks of pregnancy

Please note that if your BMI is over 35, you will be unable to use a pool in the Newcastle Birthing Centre for safety reasons.

A community midwife will reweigh you at 28 weeks if your booking BMI is 30 or more. If you think you should be reweighed or just want to check, please ask your community midwife. If a midwife on the Birthing Centre suspects there has been a lot of weight gain in your pregnancy, they may ask to weigh you during an assessment. Please do not be offended if the midwife asks to reweigh you. This is to make a safety assessment for the Birthing Centre and the pool and ensure we are recommending the safest possible birth environment for you and your baby.

Visiting

Open visiting.

Students

As a teaching hospital we will often have students from various specialities come to the Birthing Centre to gain experience during their studies. They could be:

Midwives
Doctors
Paramedics
Nurses
Occupational therapists

The students can be at various stages of their training and may be male or female. They always appreciate your permission to watch or participate in any part of your care. This experience is vital to their training. It is your decision as to whether you will allow any student to participate or watch any or all of your care or whether you would like to decline students altogether.