St George Hospital: $11.5m birthing suite opens after 12 months of construction
New mums are already singing the praises of a new $11.5 million birthing unit in Sydney’s south, which will now benefit thousands of families.
St George Shire Standard
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Construction to double the size of the birthing unit at St George Hospital — to a total of eight beds — is now complete.
The $11.5 million redevelopment, which saw the facilities expand from four to eight beds, has been under construction for the past 12 months as part of ongoing work at the hospital.
NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, said the new suites were “world-class” while opening the new unit on February 3.
“This modern, state-of-the-art unit has been carefully designed with thoughtful consideration of the needs of women during childbirth, featuring the very latest technology and equipment for maternity care,” Mr Hazzard said.
Mr Hazzard announced $11.5m funding for the new birthing unit in June 2018, earmarking the expansion plans would mean more women in St George can “access world-class birth facilities and care close to home”.
Nurse and midwife manager Lorena Matthew said it was an amazing upgrade decades in the making.
“It’s a long time coming – the facility has been the same since 1972 with a slight refurbishment in 1991, so everyone’s very excited,” Ms Matthews said.
“The rooms are double the size and especially when you’ve got an obstetric emergency, you need a whole gamut of people in the room so now they will have the space to move around.”
Two observation rooms, new neonatal monitoring technology and eight deep baths for women in labour have been provided as part of the work.
“We’ve never had the bathtubs before – we had them in the centre but not in the delivery suites, so now we’re able to offer bathtub births and that’s huge.”
Joanne Elias was one of the first mothers to give birth in the new unit, and her daughter Natalie arrived perfectly timed to enjoy the new facilities.
“My midwife had told me, if you give birth before the 30th you’ll be in the old suite, but if you give birth after the 30th you’ll be in the new ward,” Mrs Elias laughed.
“I’m like, how am I going to keep the baby in?”
Mrs Elias praised the new suite’s facilities, which uses joinery and cupboards to cover up medical equipment for parents’ peace and comfort.
“It was really uncluttered, there’s nothing really in the room – you go in and it’s pretty much like being in your bedroom at home, all the machinery is hidden by cupboards,” Mrs Elias said.
“There’s really nice waterfall wallpaper behind the bath, it wasn’t obviously like a hospital room at all.”
Mrs Elias also enjoyed the wireless heart rate monitors, which meant she could continue to walk around the room during labour instead of being confined to the bed.
The state-of-the-art monitoring systems will also give parents peace of mind in the early days after birth.
A new Pregnancy Assessment Unit, with its own waiting area and consulting room, has also been established nearby.
An expected 2300 women will give birth in the new facilities every year.
No other major works are currently taking place at St George Hospital.