St John of God Geraldton Hospital Chief Executive Officer Phillip Balmer said he was pleased to once again offer the full suite of maternity services to women and families in the region.
“We are delighted that we can reinstate this service which was first established in 1938, and continue supporting our community with safe, high quality maternity care,” Phillip said.
The service was temporarily suspended in November 2021 due to a shortage of midwives, and over the past few months some services have gradually been reinstated.
“While we recognised the importance of a private local maternity service and the strong support of the community, our priority was to ensure any service was safe and high quality,” Phillip said.
“Once we were confident we had a skilled and experienced maternity team in place we reopened a post-natal service in January, and as our workforce expanded we were able to support planned births from early February. I’m pleased that we now have sufficient staff to relaunch the full service.”
Mr Balmer thanked the WA Country Health Service for their ongoing support.
He said that St John of God Geraldton Hospital had implemented a range of measures to help avoid any future potential closures due to midwifery shortages.
“There is a shortage of health care workers across the country and many hospitals are struggling to recruit,” he said.
“We have steps in place to address midwifery shortages. We are working with Geraldton University Campus to support the provision of a local midwifery training program in conjunction with Curtin University, and Charles Darwin University.
“We are also in part of St John of God Health Care’s state-wide midwifery training program run through Notre Dame University.”
St John of God Geraldton Hospital supports women throughout pregnancy, birth and in the postnatal period, in conjunction with GP Obstetricians, specialists, midwives and nurses amongst other key health professionals.
Services include antenatal education, breastfeeding support, care for mothers recovering after birth, newborn wellbeing checks, home visits where required and parenting classes.
The hospital also has a Neonatal Nursery to care for babies who need extra support after birth. The hospital also has the K2 electronic fetal monitoring system, which allows babies to be monitored both antenatally and during labour with the information shared, in real time, with obstetricians, midwives and other clinicians.
“We are committed to making pregnancy and birth an experience that is as special as possible for women and their families,” Phillip said.
“We encourage partners to stay in hospital to bond with their new baby and have positive memories as a family. We are proud that we are able to provide a supportive environment and access to all specialty care from Obstetricians, GP Obstetricians, and Paediatricians when required.”
St John of God Geraldton Hospital Clinical Director and Obstetrician Sara Armitage said reinstating this service was a great benefit to the regional Mid-West community.
“It is so encouraging and positive to have St John of God Geraldton Hospital maternity birthing options, which are highly valued in our community, back in place,” she said.
Photo source: Jewell Photography