Home births announcement

Maternity services announcement, Home Births and NPT Birth Centre: 23rd May 2023

Due to ongoing workforce pressures within our maternity services we unfortunately need to continue the temporary suspension of our home birth service, as well as the temporary closure of the Neath Port Talbot Birth Centre. This is to ensure we can maintain safe care. This decision has been made in line with the professional guidance from the Royal College of Midwives and Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

We appreciate this may cause disappointment, but please be assured the decision to suspend this service has not been taken lightly.

We would ask you make contact with us as soon as you have any signs of labour, which will help us plan your care.

Follow this link for contact details for each community midwife team.

You may wish to consider our Bay Birthing Unit in Singleton hospital. This is midwifery-led, with individual rooms and a real home-from-home environment.

Essential support partners are welcome to attend all settings when you have an initial assessment in labour.

Alongside Midwifery Unit (The Bay Birth Unit), is open 24 Hours 7 days a week. The Bay Birth Unit follows the same model of midwifery led care as home and freestanding midwifery unit, and is an option for many women. More information about this choice of birth setting is available by following this link to the Bay Birth Unit webpage.

We will be reviewing this situation every two weeks and will update you as soon as we have any changes. We would urge those families who have planned a home birth to make contact with their community midwife to discuss the options available.

The Welsh Government continue to provide guidance around COVID-19 and hospital visiting in Maternity and Neonatal Services. Follow this link for more information about hospital visiting guidance in maternity and neonatal services from Welsh Government.

We understand our service restrictions have undoubtedly had a big impact on your maternity journey and we thank you for your understanding and patience.

If you want to discuss anything around the announcement or your birth options, please contact your community team, the numbers for the teams should be on your maternity record or you can follow this link for contact details for each community midwife team.

Information about the different birth settings is available here.

Anyone wishing to book in for maternity care can do so directly with their community midwifery team (Mon-Fri 9-5pm). Contact numbers can be obtained from your GP or from our website.

Information around current visiting restrictions can be found by following this link.

Original statement issued - July 2021

Our maternity services are under severe pressure because of the number of staff who either have Covid-19, are having to self-isolate or are unavailable due to sickness in addition to Covid related issues.

In response we have to change how we provide services with immediate effect – including making the very difficult decision to suspend the home birth service.

This is to maintain and ensure safe maternity care for all our families, in line with professional guidance from the Royal College of Midwives and Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

We will be reviewing the situation in two weeks and will update you as soon as we have any changes. We would urge those families who have planned a home birth to make contact with their community midwife to discuss the options available.

We appreciate this may cause disappointment, but please be assured the decision to suspend this service has not been taken lightly.

We would ask you make contact with us as soon as you have any signs of labour, which will help us plan your care.

The maternity section of the Swansea Bay website includes full information, including details of our birth centres at Neath Port Talbot and Singleton hospitals.

These are midwifery-led, with individual rooms and a real home-from-home environment.

Essential support partners are welcome to attend all settings when you have an initial assessment in labour.

Where you are not in labour and it is safe to do so you will be advised to return home and wait for you labour to progress. This will minimise the amount of time you are separated from your essential support.

We apologise for any disappointment this may cause and thank our community for the ongoing support at this challenging time.