On the SDH maternity unit and delivering 2,500 babies every year

The number of births is expected to increase up to 3,000 a year as the army rebasing takes place over the next few years and there are plans in place for a £2.3m extension to the maternity unit.

Covering South Wiltshire, West Hampshire and North Dorset, the maternity unit is comprised of the antenatal clinic and day assessment unit, the labour ward, postnatal ward, neonatal unit for babies requiring specialist care, and the Benson bereavement suite.

Head of Maternity and Neonatal Services Fiona Coker said: “Women have the choice where they have their baby – if there is a woman living in Poole who chooses to have her baby in Salisbury, we are going to welcome her and her partner.

“The majority of women start their pregnancy journey with midwives now rather than a GP. There are five community teams from Shaftesbury to Salisbury and the Tidworth area who see women throughout their pregnancy and for community based postnatal care.”

The hospital has 79 midwives and is looking to recruit the equivalent of four more full-time midwives, with many working part-time.

Three to four per cent of women choose to have home births, an option open to women regarded as low risk whereas women regarded as having a high risk birth will be advised to birth in the maternity unit, where there is obstetric cover, a labour ward and an obstetric theatre.

Antenatal services within the hospital include ultrasound services and help to support women who see specialists such as obstetricians and the endocrine team. “Women are becoming more complex with more health issues than we ever used to see before,” Ms Coker said.

“Because women don’t access their GPs for pregnancy-related problems now, they tend to drop in to us on the Day Assessment Unit - they can self-refer if they are worried at any time during the pregnancy."

The labour ward has 14 beds, ten of which are rooms and four are induction or antenatal/postnatal beds. The postnatal ward has 15 beds and four amenity rooms which can be paid for if women want to have their partners stay.

Around one in ten babies need additional support, for reasons ranging from low blood sugar levels to being a pre-term baby, and they are cared for by a nursing team in the neonatal unit.

All community midwives offer antenatal education and are the biggest source of continuity for a woman through pregnancy.

The hospital team also includes about 30 part-time maternity care assistants who are trained within the unit and conduct observations and help support women as they breast feed.

Ms Coker said: “Sadly there are some bereavements in pregnancy. It’s not something talked about very much. We wanted a tranquil space for parents to have time with their baby at a time which is painful but can be made really special if done well.”

In 2013, the Benson Bereavement Suite opened, led by a team of midwives specialised in bereavement care.

Ms Coker who came to Salisbury almost 32 years ago to train as a nurse before becoming a midwife, said people interested in midwifery need to be warm, caring, and have an interest in putting others first.

“They need to be curious in order to learn, have the ability to reflect when things are not as expected and be able to a communicate as part of a team and with mothers and families.", and in addition to being academic enough to get through the midwifery degree, must have an amount of emotional intelligence.

“It’s a tiring job and very full on - you are with somebody for a concentrated period of time and then there is a big expectation with keeping your professional standards at the right level.

“We have to run a responsive service depending on the demand - we know roughly how many women are due each month but we don’t know exactly when they will deliver, there may be 20 in one shift.

“This means we have to be able to draft midwives from one service to another. Women must have one-to-one support with a midwife in labour.”

Taking time out to have her own children, Ms Coker has always returned to SDH and has worked in a variety of midwifery roles.

She said: “The success of the unit is completely down to the team which works incredibly hard. They come to work to give the best they can for mothers and their families.”