'˜We are open for business!' say midwives at Eastbourne DGH

Eastbourne District General Hospital Midwifery Unit (Photo by Jon Rigby)

Many people don't realise that women can still give birth at the DGH '“ and midwives are battling to change this misconception.

Eastbourne Midwifery Unit (EMU) has been going for five years, ever since maternity services were moved to Hastings Conquest in 2013.

The Herald visited the unit to see what it is like.

Marie Foreman, midwifery matron, said, “I think the message we have a birthing centre here has been lost in the politics. The message was ‘everything’s gone’. We have really struggled to put it across that not everything has left. It has been such a battle. It’s a really successful centre that’s proven to be safe.”

Matron Marie Foreman with new equipment the cube

When asked about what it’s like being a midwife, Marie said, “It’s a stressful job, a demanding job, you have to have a certain level of resilience to do it for a long time, but this is a really lovely place to work, you have the time to spend with the women, we give them really good one to one care. We are not rushed all the time.”

The unit has 16 midwives, two birthing rooms, and also provides antenatal, postnatal, and neonatal care. In 2016 266 women gave birth in EMU and in 2017 this increased to 281. But Marie believes it has the capacity for 500 births a year and is hoping to raise awareness of the unit to help more mothers.

She said, “All the midwives here are very experienced and comfortable treating women, and they are also high risk trained.”

Only women who have a high risk pregnancy have to go to Conquest, she explained, “We risk assess continuously through pregnancy. In labour things don’t tend to go wrong as an emergency, things tend to be gradual. We always want the woman to be in the safest place.”