Maternity

Temporary Changes To Birth Centre And Homebirth Services At St George’s University Hospital Maternity Unit

As of Monday 27 of March, care given by our birth centre and homebirth services are temporarily diverted to our main Delivery Suite.

We continue to temporarily divert care from our birth centre to our main delivery suite. We are still providing midwifery led care, and can adapt the environment on the delivery suite to meet your needs, as shown in the photos below.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, and our teams will continue to work with and support you to determine the safest and best options for you in the immediate term.

We are continuing to assess the situation on a daily basis and will keep this page updated.

If you need additional support please contact our Consultant Midwife on maternity.experience@stgeorges.nhs.uk

Listening Event This Week!

Friday 31^st March 3-5pm

Are you concerned about any antenatal, labour or postnatal care?

Come to talk to our Consultant midwife and a ‘Maternity Voices’ Mum

over a cuppa at the Maternity Education room, 4^th floor Lanesborough wing.

Just drop-in, no need to book.

ENTONOX STATEMEMT

Entonox is the ‘laughing gas’ used in labour. It is breathed in by the labouring person and does not affect the baby. It has a very short-lasting effect with each breathe. Some people only use this form of pain relief in labour.

This issue concerns risks associated with levels of nitrous oxide gas to which staff may be exposed to, as reported in the press.

At St George’s University Hospitals, there are currently no plans to stop any use of Entonox (Nitrous Oxide & Oxygen).

The assessments of the occupational levels of Nitrous Oxide exposure in staff for the past year have assured us that our current upgraded ventilation system has significantly reduced staff exposure levels and we continue to regularly monitor staff exposure to ensure their safety and wellbeing.

In addition, we are working closely with our Estates teams to introduce formal active extraction (scavenging) of nitrous oxide into all areas of maternity by upgrading some of our rooms and using specialised hoses on Entonox breathing systems. This, combined with a specialised destruction unit, will further optimise the safety of nitrous oxide use both to the staff and the environment.

Our Service

Welcome to St George’s Maternity Unit. We look forward to caring for you and your baby during pregnancy, birth and afterwards.

Follow this link if you are pregnant and would like to have your baby at St Georges to complete the online self referral form. You can use this form before contacting your GP. Please try to complete before 7 weeks of pregnancy (OR as soon as you know you are pregnant after that gestation, OR as soon as you decide on a transfer of care). Once the referral has been processed, you will receive a letter with a midwife appointment. This can take 2-3 weeks.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) Inspection – March 2023

CQC are inspecting our maternity services and welcome feedback from patients/people who have given birth or used our maternity services from January 2022 up until 28th February 2023. You can tell CQC about our service or any service you have used. CQC uses stories from both satisfied and dissatisfied people to drive improvement in registered services. Please use this link to give feedback.

Early Pregnancy Service

For pregnancies less than 14 weeks

020 8725 0093

If you are less than 14 weeks pregnant and have any concerns e.g., abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding, please contact us for information and advice on our Early Pregnancy Answerphone Service Monday – Saturday, number above. Leave your name, phone number and pregnancy concern and the nurses will respond to your answerphone message in the afternoon every day except Sundays. Please visit their webpage here for more information. If you have urgent concerns please go to A&E.

St George’s Maternity Helpline

For pregnancies more than 14 weeks

020 8725 2777

Please call this number if you are more than 14 weeks pregnant and have concerns about yourself or your baby (during pregnancy, labour or in the 6 weeks after birth). It is staffed by midwives who can offer advice, reassurance, and clinical support 7 days a week.

(Launched March 2022)

What Language Do You Need? (Translation Services)

Please use the translate function in the top left corner of the page to access all of this information in another language.

If English is not your first language, please let us know if you require an interpreter. We can provide a face to face interpreter for outpatient care, and we always have telephone translation services available 24 hours a day in all settings.

Social Media

We have an active Instagram and Facebook account with regular updates on our service as well as useful videos, information and pictures. Be sure to follow us on Twitter here! @stgmaternity

Maternity Unit Tour

We have created this maternity tour video to show you the unit, how to get there and what to expect. We hope this is helpful for you.

Feedback from our service users can be found on NHS Choices.

What CQC says about our maternity service

The maternity service was rated as Good overall and Outstanding for Effective by the CQC (Care Quality Commission) in the report in November 2016.

What our service users say:

“I want to reassure you that your staff are doing a fantastic job despite the huge demands placed on them.”

“My husband and I will be forever grateful to the individuals involved and the NHS for the extremely high level of care provided”

“The team were absolutely brilliant, I cannot thank them enough”