Move for hospital birthing services

Maternity and neonatal services will be moved out of a Black Country hospital next Friday, it emerged today.

Expectant mothers will no longer be able to give birth at Sandwell Hospital as services are temporarily moved to City Hospital in Dudley Road, Winson Green, as part of a £2 million shake-up to improve services in Sandwell and Birmingham.

Women will be able to give birth in Sandwell again when a £1m stand-alone midwifery-led birth unit, funded by Sandwell Primary Care Trust, opens in October on a site next to the Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre in Oldbury Road, Smethwick.

Donal O'Donoghue, medical director at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Our maternity and neonatal services are going through big changes, but they are essential and will improve the quality of care, and provide a first-class experience for the women who choose to give birth here."

Head of midwifery, Elaine Newell said: "We have invested £1.85 million into maternity services.

"We have refurbished the maternity unit at City Hospital, making the unit brighter for women and their loved ones.

"In April 2010, we opened the new Serenity Midwifery- Led Unit at City Hospital, investing a further £800,000 into maternity services.

"This unit has had 500 births since it was opened and provides a homely environment that does not look or feel like a hospital."

From October, women who have a straightforward, pregnancy will be given the opportunity to have their baby in the new unit.