South Glasgow Maternity Unit

The first babies were born in what was then known as the Southern General’s £28 million redeveloped maternity unit on 9 December 2009, marking the completion of the Unit's refurbishment; a milestone of the ambitious strategy to improve services for mothers and children across the city.

Among its world-class facilities is the brand new foetal medicine department providing specialist diagnostic facilities and treatment to unborn babies from across Scotland. The hospital is also a national centre for certain specialist services for newborn babies and provides state-of-the-art intensive care services.

The Maternity building is physically linked to the new children’s and adult hospitals via a walkway bridge.

The development includes a large three storey extension to the pre-existing maternity unit, offering mums and their babies the very best in terms of accommodation and access to the latest equipment and technology.

The unit was also one of the first pieces in the jigsaw that saw a truly gold standard of healthcare on the Govan site with maternity, children’s and adult acute services all together with the £800million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital which was completed in 2015.

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 providing specialist diagnostic facilities and treatment to unborn babies from across Scotland. The unit is 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 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 give mothers the opportunity to stay with their baby to establish parenting skills and breast feeding prior to discharge and reduce the need for separation if the baby requires a short-term observation or treatment. 

Further work provided modern, attractive accommodation for day care, assessment and early pregnancy advisory services.

There are around 5,500 births at the South Glasgow Maternity unit each year.