The first babies were born in the Southern General’s £28 million redeveloped maternity unit on 9 December 2009.
The state-of-the-art development which includes a large three storey extension to the pre-existing maternity unit, offers mums and their babies the very best in terms of accommodation and access to the latest equipment and technology.
The new unit is also the first piece in the jigsaw that will see a truly gold standard of healthcare on the Govan site with maternity, children’s and adult acute services all together on the one site when the new £800million South Glasgow Hospital Campus is completed in 2015.
The opening of the newly developed unit enabled maternity services at the former Queen Mother’s Hospital to transfer to the Southern General and the Princess Royal Maternity in early 2010 and completed the move from three Glasgow maternity units to two.
The redeveloped maternity boasts a number of world class facilities for women and babies from across the city and beyond. These include:
- A brand-new foetal medicine unit which will provide specialist diagnostic facilities and treatment to unborn babies from across Scotland. The unit will be equipped with three treatment rooms, scanning facilities, counselling facilities and separate waiting areas.
- Two state-of-the art operating theatres – one equipped with special laser technology used to provide treatment to babies while they are still in the womb (interventional foetal therapy).
- A purpose-built new labour suite with 12 labour rooms - all with en-suite toilet and bath/shower facilities and two with birthing pools, a four bedded antenatal area, high dependency beds and a five bedded recovery area, counselling rooms, a delivery room for women experiencing a stillbirth or miscarriage, kitchen and waiting facilities for visitors.
- A neonatal intensive care unit with the capacity for 34 medical and surgical intensive care/high dependency cots.
- A Special Care Baby Unit with 26 special care cots for babies who require extra support and care after birth and four mother and baby rooms with en-suite facilities for babies who are relatively well. These rooms will give mothers the opportunity to stay with their baby to establish parenting skills and breast feeding prior to discharge and will also reduce the need for separation if the baby requires a short-term observation or treatment.
Further work will transform the old labour ward to provide modern, attractive accommodation for day care, assessment and early pregnancy advisory services.
It is anticipated that there will be around 5,500 births at the new redeveloped Southern Maternity and some 6,800 births at the Princess Royal Maternity each year.
