Call the midwives! Bridgwater maternity unit opens 24/7 for first time in a decade

That’s the message from Kate Hopwood and Esther Thayer, senior community midwives at Bridgwater’s maternity unit, which from today will be open 24/7 for the first time in a decade.

As part of a major relaunch of the unit, at the town’s community hospital, the midwifery team has made a call to pregnant women, or those planning on starting a family, to consider having a ‘Bridgwater baby’.

“Over the last few years the unit has been relatively underused, but we are determined to change that,” Mrs Hopwood said.

“We currently have about 30-40 births here every year, but we want to quadruple that number and welcome more Bridgwater Babies into the world.”

Kate and Esther are part of a team of 20 experienced midwives running the unit, which has state-of-the-art facilities, including en-suite rooms and two birthing pools.

“Mary Stanley provides a safe, relaxed birthing environment and we are passionate about providing high quality, one-to-one care, to women who are at low risk of complications,” Mrs Thayer said.

“Over the past year it has been difficult to escape some of the media coverage about Mary Stanley, following the unfortunate temporary closure last year and the completely unfounded rumours before the election that we were planning to close it.”

The Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust Board met in November 2016 to discuss the unit and agreed there was no reason to make any changes to the current service. 

“So, we are very pleased to confirm Mary Staley Unit is here to stay and we want to see record numbers of births here,” Mrs Hopwood said.

The 24/7 midwife cover at Mary Stanley is going to be initially trialled for three months and if successful, will be made permanent.

The current unit opened just over three years ago, following the transfer from the old hospital in Salmon Parade to the new community hospital.

The Mary Stanley Wing, as it used to be called, has been a historical feature of Bridgwater for some 70 years.

Mrs Hopwood said: “We recently went on a short tour of all three maternity units and learned Mary Stanley herself was a friend of Florence Nightingale and a prominent nurse during the Crimean War.

“We are very proud of our role and the Mary Stanley Unit’s place in the Bridgwater community. We would really encourage all mums-to-be in the area to come and take a look around the unit and hopefully choose us to deliver your new bundle of joy into the world.”

Stephanie Gardner gave birth two boys at the Mary Stanley ward in 2015 and 2016.
She said: “The water birth experiences I had were amazing, and the midwives delivered my children with care, enthusiasm and were overall the most helpful midwives we could have asked for. I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done.”

Another parent, Lorraine Vos, said: “Our son was born at Mary Stanley in May this year. Parking is stress free, the facilities are modern and spotless and the experienced staff were calm, reassuring and gave me one-to-one care.”

The unit’s community midwives also support women who choose to have home births and will provide other services at the unit including 24 hour breastfeeding support and assessment in early labour.

Open evenings will be held between 6pm and 8pm on the first Tuesday of every month, where women and their families can be given a tour of the facilities and meet the midwives.

You can follow updates on the Mary Stanley Unit Facebook page, by downloading the HANDi maternity app, and on Twitter, mothers are encourage to post pictures of their newborns using the hashtag #BridgwaterBaby.