Meadow Birth Centre

Lady with baby

Meadow Birth Centre, a brand new midwife-led Birth Centre, opened at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in April 2015. It gives you more choice over where your baby is delivered.

The centre, run by experienced midwives, offers a comfortable environment where birth is treated as a ‘normal’ process (without intervention), rather than a medical one.

The four-room centre (each with an en-suite) is near to the current delivery suite, but not a part of it. It looks and feels homely – not like a hospital – helping you to feel comfortable and relaxed.

Download our leaflet about the Meadow Birth Centre

Video tour of Meadow Birth Centre

Find a video below of a guided tour through the Meadow Birth Centre, taking in each of the birthing rooms as well as the family room and other facilities the centre has.

Who can use the centre?

The centre offers a safe place to give birth if you are assessed as ‘low risk’. This means the midwife has cared for you during your pregnancy and there have been no complications or medical problems. The lead professional for your care will therefore be the midwife. You will be provided with the phone numbers to contact the birth centre for advice when you are in labour and will then be invited to come in. The facility will be used for all low-risk pregnancies, unless you wish to opt out.

What will the care be like?

Our highly trained midwives offer support, encouragement and care for women to have normal labours. This includes offering different ways to cope, such as trying different birthing positions, relaxation, aromatherapy or using water for labour– you will even be able to adjust the lighting and any music you wish to have in the room. The birth centre does not provide epidurals or caesarean sections – these are provided in the delivery suite for women who choose or are advised to consider these options. Women who have used birth centres find they need less pain relief and have a normal birth. They are also less likely to need forceps or caesarean birth. You and your baby should be able to go home within a few hours after giving birth.

What if something goes wrong?

Most women who give birth in a birth centre do so without any problems. However, there are a few women who need to have their care under a consultant on the delivery suite. There will be no doctors in the birth centre, so the small percentage of women who may experience difficulties during birth will be transferred to the nearby delivery suite just down the corridor to receive care from a consultant and a delivery suite midwife.

What are my other options?

Our model of care is ‘opt out’, which means all low risk women who choose to give birth at Worcestershire Royal Hospital will be booked for the birth centre. If you choose not to give birth in the birth centre you will be able to give birth at home or on the delivery suite at Worcestershire Royal Hospital. Your community midwife will be happy to give you more information on all of your options.

Meet the Meadow Birth Centre team

Meadow Birth Centre team

The experienced Meadow Birth Centre team is made up of 14 midwives and seven maternity support workers, led by Matron Rachel Carter and Team Leader Louise Turbutt.

Matron Rachel Carter Louise has been a midwife for 12 years. Most recently she has been working as an audit and training midwife, and is soon to complete her training as a Supervisor of Midwives.

To meet our wider maternity team, click here.

Where to find us

We are on Meadow Level (1) at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

Download a printable floor plan of the hospital

Download a printable site map

More information

Photographs and artists’ impressions of the new centre will be available on our website as soon as we have them available. Tours of the birth centre will be included as part of the tours of the delivery suite already on offer.

360 video of birthing rooms

Below are a series of videos featuring each room. You can see the full 360 degree viewpoint of each room by physically moving your phone or by scrolling with your mouse on a computer.