Facilities
Our Maternity inpatient services are provided
at Watford General Hospital with outpatient services being delivered on three sites: Watford General, Hemel Hempstead and St Albans City hospitals.
Maternity services are mostly provided to women within the West Hertfordshire boundaries and as well as women from neighbouring areas who choose to book their care with the trust.
Our Maternity service provides antenatal and postnatal care for approximately 6,500 women.
There are approximately 440 births per year in the Alexandra Birthing Centre.
The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) has assessed our Maternity service at level two, which means we provide at least 60 hours of direct consultant labour ward cover per week; however we provide 24 hours-a-day, seven days a week consultant availability.
Below is a detailed outline of the services and facilities provided by the Maternity Service:
Delivery Suite with:
- Midwifery Triage Bay – two beds
- 10 Delivery Rooms
- Two-bedded Obstetric Observation Bay for high dependency women
- Two-bedded Obstetric Recovery Bay
- Bereavement Suite
- Two Obstetric Theatres
The Alexandra Birthing Centre
The birthing centre provides a 'home-from-home' service to women with uncomplicated pregnancies, has the following facilities:
- Eight en-suite Delivery/Postnatal Rooms
- A Sensory Room
- Two Pool Rooms
Postnatal and Inpatient Services:
- 26-bedded Postnatal ward
- Five-bedded transitional care
- 14-bedded Antenatal ward
Neonatal Service with:
- Level Two Neonatal Unit
- Dedicated neotatal/midwife newborn initial physical examination clinics on the postnatal ward
- Hearing screening service
- BCG programme
Antenatal Services:
- Maternity Day Assessment Unit
- Counselling Service on the Hemel Hempstead and Watford Sites
- Antenatal Clinic Services on three sites
- Fetal Medicine Service on two sites
- Combined Consultant Care in - Combined Endocrine/Obstetric Clinics
- Joint Perinatal Paediatric/Obstetric Clinics
- Weekly Consultant Anaesthetic Clinics
- Dating scan service
- Combined nuchal screening
- Quadruple testing
- Harmony prenatal test
Specialist services:
- Consultant Midwife access
- Safeguarding and complex needs team
- Infant Feeding team
- Antenatal screening midwife/fetal medicine coordinator
- External cephalic version service for breech presentation.
