£4.8m baby unit officially opened

May 15 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

£4.8m baby unitofficially opened

SHONA Robison, the Minister for Public Health and Sport, officially opened the £4.8million refurbished Perth Midwife Unit and Women’s Clinic at PRI on Tuesday.

The development highlights the continued commitment of NHS Tayside to further establish the hospital as a very important element of acute services across the region.

It will hugely benefit women from Perthshire who will receive their care in modern facilities.

Perth has had a midwife-led Community Maternity Unit (CMU) for four years, giving pregnant women high quality care and the choice of having their baby in a relaxed and therapeutic environment.

Around 280 babies were born in the Perth CMU last year.

The new midwife-led unit has an additional birthing pool and en-suite, and single post-natal rooms for mums and babies.

Where there is no medical need for a mum to deliver in an obstetric unit, many women prefer to deliver their baby in their local CMU.

For mums who are low risk and would prefer to have a more natural birth, the newly-furbished and larger unit will benefit them by giving them more choice over the type of birth they wish to have.

Ms Robison said: “Both the clinic and the midwife unit provide women across Perth and Kinross with the very best care in the most modern, cutting-edge facilities.

“The women’s clinic offers more local access to gynaecology, tailored to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of women who can now be treated as outpatients.

“The midwife unit supports women with one-to-one care, provided as close to home as possible.”

Chairman of NHS Tayside, Sandy Watson, said: “NHS Tayside continues to invest in services at the PRI site, reinforcing our commitment to improving access to treatment for Perth and Kinross patients and providing more health services closer to where people live.”

Students from Perth College were also present at the visit as they have contributed artwork to go on display at the new facility.

NHS Tayside Clinical Group Manager for Women and Child Health, Lorna Wiggin, said: “The Perth Midwife Unit and Women’s Clinic promotes normality in pregnancy and childbirth, offering women the opportunity to give birth in a midwife-led unit close to their own home.”

More information about the CMU can be obtained at www.birthinperth.scot.nhs.uk

Last month, GMTV celebrity Lorraine Kelly officially opened the Dundee Midwifery Unit at Ninewells Hospital.