THEY are used to delivering other people’s babies.
But midwives at one of our delivery centres are in a mini baby-boom of their own.
Nine woman from Calderdale Royal Hospital have recently given birth in either the delivery suite, the birth centre or at home.
And there are even more mums-to-be.
Head of midwifery, consultant midwife Helen Shallow said: “We are proud of all of our midwives and especially happy for our midwives with their new babies.
“They all came here to have their babies, which meant they were cared for by their colleagues in the teams which makes it extra special for us all.”
The midwives’ deliveries are part of a baby boom that is happening across the UK.
Across the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust – which includes birth centres at Calderdale and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, the Calderdale delivery suite and home births – 6,100 babies are born every year.
Around 1,500 of them are in the non-medical environments of the birth centres, which are run only by midwives and offer a more natural birth.
The number of babies born in the birth centre at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary has steadily increased since it opened four years ago – with around 700 babies now being born there each year.
Nearly half of all babies born in the centres are water pool births.
Around 2% of babies in Huddersfield and Halifax are born at home and 22% of women have a caesarean birth, which is down 25% from a few years ago.
Helen continues: “It was fantastic seeing our midwives proudly showing off their bumps and their new babies. We are very proud of the maternity services here and they are too – that’s why they have had their babies here”.
