How long will I be in Hospital
If mother and baby are well you may wish to go home after six hours. This will depend on the time your baby was born. Your baby will need a hearing screen and an in depth examination by a midwife or doctor.
If you have had a caesarean section you may go home 24 hours after your caesarean if you are assessed as fit and well (deemed medically fit).
We like to encourage all new mothers to stay with us for at least a night, especially if they are breastfeeding. This means that you will get support 24 hours a day in order for your confidence to grow.
If you need to stay longer, due to any complications following birth or if your baby is unwell, then we do have facilities to enable your partner to stay with you.
George Eliot Hospital Maternity Unit has a number of services available to help you to get home and support your time with your baby if required.
Top tip
Remember to bring an appropriate car child seat for the journey home.
Drayton is a 23 bedded ward for antenatal and postnatal women. We can be found on the second floor of the maternity building (there are two lifts as well as stair access).
We also have a bay that is used for any women having their labour induced.
This ward is where you and your baby go following delivery and you are cared for by midwives and health care support workers.
Our telephone number is 024 7686 5053
Drayton Ward Manager is Cheryl Hughes
The newborn hearing screening test helps to identify babies who have permanent hearing loss as early as possible.Parents can then get the support they need right from the start.
Permanent hearing loss can significantly affect a baby's development.
If you have given birth at the George Eliot Hospital, you will be offered a new born hearing test for your baby before you are discharged.
Although it is recommended that you have the test this is not compulsory and your choice. All of our mums have had this test in the last 12 months.
If you want more information about this test please speak to your health worker, midwife or GP.
Further information can be found on the NHS website
What is the After Birth Listening Service?
George Eliot Hospital has an After Birth Listening Service (ABLS) which offers you the chance to talk about and reflect upon your birth experience.
This can help you to make sense of what happened and answer any questions you may have. The service may also help you to prepare and plan for future pregnancies by talking through your previous birth experiences.
Why would the ABLS be useful to you?
Sometimes giving birth can result in unexpected events, for example emergency procedures, premature birth or anything else that you may have felt unprepared for.
Whatever your experience of childbirth, it is not uncommon to be unable to recall every detail of the event. Sometimes childbirth can be traumatic and cause emotional distress, and this can impact upon your ability to recall events.
When should I access the ABLS? There is no time limit on when you should access the ABLS if you want to. If your labour was recent, then it may be useful to speak with your community midwife at your post natal visit as she may be able to answer your questions.
How to access the ABLS
Please speak to your community midwife or health visitor for more information on the After Birth Listening Service.
The best way to access the service is to speak to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) by telephoning 024 7686 5550, or by emailing PALS@geh.nhs.uk.
Once you have made contact with PALS, they will take some details and a midwife will contact you within a couple of weeks, to make an appointment. If you have any problems arranging your appointment, please contact PALS who will help follow up your request.
What happens at the ABLS?
The midwife will arrange an ABLS meeting at a time to suit everyone involved. It will take place in the maternity, or an alternative room at the George Eliot Hospital can be used if you prefer. The meeting is usually with a midwife, although it can be attended by anyone else who is thought to be appropriate. You can invite your partner, a relative or friend. This session can last up to an hour and a half. During the meeting you will be able to make your own notes and you can also request a copy of any notes taken during the meeting.
The following are examples of the subjects raised at an ABLS meeting:
How was your experience of the birth?
Did it meet your expectations?
Was there anything about the birth that you didn't anticipate or expect?
What would you like to know more about in order for you to make sense of what happened?
Where mum is happy to go home this can be as early as within six hours of giving birth providing there haven't been any problems during the labour or the birth. If you decide to go home quickly your midwife may be able to perform the neonatal check of the baby. If not it will be carried out by one of the children's doctors - a paediatrician - before you and baby go home.
After you and baby go home, you will be visited by your community midwife at home. In the majority of cases you will have a visit the following day. In some cases you will receive a telephone call. Your midwife will plan your postnatal care with you.
You will be provided with useful contact numbers within your patient notes
Health Visitors support families with children under 5 years old. They monitor the development of the child and support parents with feeding, sleep problems, speech development, post-natal depression, behaviour and development concerns.
The Healthy Child Programme:
A visit or telephone call during your pregnancy around 25 – 28 weeks
A home visit when your baby is 10 – 14 days
A 6-8 week check with your GP which should include vaccination
Approximately 10% of babies are born with a Tongue Tie and of those, 60% feed perfectly well. For the small percentage of babies with feeding problems, a referral is made from a Health Professional to the Specialist Tongue Tie Team at the George Eliot Hospital. The team will then invite you to attend a clinic based in the hospital to assess your baby. Clinics run on a weekly basis on the 1st floor of the Maternity Building (the same place you would have attended for scans and appointments during pregnancy.
This service is available for all baby’s born at George Eliot Hospital or live in the surrounding areas.
The first few hours are precious for new-borns and this campaign both informs parents and reinforces our midwives’ training in keeping babies warm. Our nine steps to keeping new born babies warm videos and New Born babies warm poster (PDF) help us work together for the good of the babies and helps prevent them having to be treated in our special care unit.
Keeping newborn babies warm is one of the initiatives identified by the maternity and neonatal team who are taking part in the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Collaborative. This is a three-year programme to support improvements in the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal units across England. The campaign will measure the effect of the initiative and analyse the findings later this year.
Did you know? George Eliot Hospital Maternity Unit received over 15,000 baby hats from kind knitters following a Facebook campaign.
Supporting information
Kangaroo Care was a method started in Bogotá, Colombia in 1978 to improve the survival of premature babies in low-resource countries. It has since expanded world-wide and consists of continuous skin to skin contact between the mother and baby, from the time of birth (from the delivery room or intensive, intermediate or basic care,) supports breastfeeding and earlier discharge from hospital.
The aim of the National Maternity and Neonatal Safety Collaborative programme is to reduce the rates of maternal deaths, stillbirths, neonatal deaths and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 20% by 2020 and 50% by 2025.
This national programme requires all NHS trusts (plus independent providers) who provide maternity services in England to make measurable improvements in safety outcomes for women, their babies and families by exchanging ideas and best practice.
What ICON Stands For
The core of the campaign both locally and nationally is based around coping with a crying baby.
ICON represents: * I – Infant crying is normal
* C –Comforting methods can help
* O – It’s OK to walk away
* N – Never, ever shake a baby
Speak to someone if you need support such as your family, friends, Midwife, GP or Health Visitor.
The ability to cope with stress depends on the controllability of the stressor. The measures to contain and delay the spread of COVID19 are already presenting major stressors for families which they cannot control e.g.
Loss of income
Self isolation with children and potentially at risk adults
Social distancing restrictions on activities which might lessen stress (e.g. sports, social engagement and entertainment, celebrations)
Social distancing restrictions on activities which might enhance support and coping (e.g support groups, children/baby groups and classes, baby clinics).
