Baby unit is growing
Published 8 Sep 2011 12:00
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WHERE to have your baby is a decision that no mum-to-be takes lightly, but more and more women from the area are now choosing the Vale of Leven Hospital.
Last week the Reporter visited the Community Maternity Unit (CMU) at the hospital to hear first hand from new parents about their experience at the unit and the levels of care they received during their stay.
The dedicated midwives of the CMU also took the time to tell us exactly how they operate, the varied services they have on offer and what makes their unit so special.
One new mum Jennifer Davidson, said she much preferred giving birth to baby Ethan, just one-week-old, at the Vale rather than Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital where she had her eldest child.
The 23-year-old from Dumbarton said: "It's more one-to-one here because it's midwife-led and they are never far away.
"They were there telling me to breath and were always reassuring me and I always felt comfortable with them.
"I would say I preferred it to Paisley - just on my own personal experience. I had my first baby up at Paisley and I felt I was on my own on the ward at first."
Mary Harkins, one of the midwives at the CMU, said: "It's a lovely place to work. It's a very friendly relaxed atmosphere for the mothers giving birth.
"Because we are a low risk unit the women are looked after by the midwife.
"It's small so there is no pressure for the beds and we don't interfere with nature.
"We do community visits to the mums as well after they have had their baby for about the first ten days to check them and we do homebirths as well.
"We have around 20 midwives, who are a mixture of full and part time. Most of our midwives have been here and worked here for many years, so we work well together.
"We are having mums coming back for their second and third babies at the CMU and our numbers are increasing. Mums are telling other mums about what a good experience they have had."
Women choosing the Vale are given CMU are put in one of three large comfortable birthing rooms, one of which has a state of the art birthing pool.
The rooms also contains an en-suite bath, shower and toilet facilities and have soft matting, birthing balls and a birthing couch to encourage women to be active in labour.
This article appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 06 Sep 11
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