COMMUNICATIONS

Hospital Reassures Pregnant Canterbury Women

Women and babies are still being well served at Christchurch Women’s Hospital and the rest of Canterbury’s birthing units despite a peak in the birth rate in the last couple of months that has kept all major New Zealand maternity hospitals very busy.

“I think the public may be confused about the availability of services, following recent publicity about babies being transferred to intensive care units in other centres. All of these babies have required special care after birth, unlike the vast majority of babies that are born in our region each year, ” said Pauline Clark, Canterbury District Health Board’s General Manager Women’s and Children’s Health.

“Neonatal Intensive Care(NICU) is a national service aiming to provide care in each of the six regions for the majority of the time, recognising that for short periods of time transfers may be required when capacity is exceeded, “ she said

“Because we are a small country, our NICU service needs to be a national one. It would not be appropriate to have larger services in each of the six centres, with parts of them lying idle for much of the year. However, the service does come under pressure when a large number of babies requiring special care are born all at once. The peak that we have been experiencing in the last couple of months has been extraordinary and very difficult to plan for.”

“Pregnant women who have come to Christchurch Women’s Hospital and any of Canterbury’s primary birthing units in the last few months have received the maternity services that they have needed and we have considerable capacity to provide services for mothers and babies that do not require intensive care,” Ms Clark said.

“Women who have given birth at Christchurch Women’s may have been transferred with their babies to another local birthing unit if the hospital’s wards have been full but we have been more than able to provide the care that they have needed,” she said.

“We would also like to remind the public that Christchurch Women’s Hospital is a secondary hospital designed primarily to provide services for women requiring complicated deliveries. The primary birthing units are ideal for women that we know are likely to have an uncomplicated delivery.”

ENDS