WELCOME TO THE WORLD: A day in the life at Musgrove's maternity unit

I spent the day at Musgrove Park Hospital’s Maternity Unit to find out a bit more about what goes on - and it’s safe to say, I won’t be getting pregnant any time soon.

But don’t let me put you off, because the unit here is home to top-notch facilities and a whole host of staff ready to help you on your journey.

With an arsenal of awards under its belt, including recognition for lowering stillbirth rates, providing flu vaccinations for pregnant woman, and its HANDi mobile app, the unit cares for around 3,200 babies a year.

The unit is made up of three wards, Fern, Willow and Labour, Bracken Birthing Centre, the neonatal unit, the anti-natal clinic, the Rowan Suite, as well as the Juniper team and the Mary Stanley Birthing Centre in Bridgwater.

Each area specialises in a different area of the pregnancy process, from getting pregnant, to giving birth, and sometimes to help mothers who lose their babies before they get to meet them.

Each day is different at the unit as you never know quite how busy you’ll be.

Joanne Hayward, matron, who has been a midwife for more than 20 years, says she’s still fascinated by her work.

She said: “Most of the time a woman can have a baby with a midwife, you don’t normally need a doctor.

“When you have a baby you aren’t ill - you’re just pregnant.

“Each day is so varied. I’m still so interested and fascinated by things. You learn things every day, especially keeping up with the technology.”

The unit tries to encourage natural births despite the national growing rate of c-sections and use of epidural. In August, 63 per cent of the woman had normal deliveries, with 25 per cent needing a caesarean and 44 woman opting for an epidural.

Nine months after Christmas is the busiest time for Musgrove Park Hospital’s maternity unit.

The unit brought 289 babies into the world in August 2017 - the busiest time of year.

Most of the births take place on the Labour ward. In August, 240 of the births took place there. This ward is where births involving c-sections and other pain relief methods, ie epidurals, take place.

The Bracken centre is where mums considered to be low-risk can choose to give birth. In August, 49 babies were delivered here. This is where water births take place.

Bev Barrett said: “I think water birth rates are increasing because more people know about it. Our midwives are more confident with it than ever.

“It’s like a massive hug. You feel weightless and relaxed, free of boundaries.”

One of the birthing tubs at the Bracken Birthing Centre. 

Women starting or moving along in their pregnancy will visit Fern to keep up to date with their checks to make sure everything is healthy.

Elsewhere in the unit, mums and their new ones are recovering on Willow ward. This is where they learn how to breastfeed and where they spend their final moments on the ward before heading home to life with their new bundle of joy.

The ward has 17 beds and two side rooms, as well as a newly refurbished Lavender Longue where mums can relax before they had home.

Vivian Duncan, ward sister, said: “We can have up to 10 people go home in the day, then it’s totally filled again by the evening.

“We’re currently working towards our Gold award for breastfeeding after getting our Bronze and Silver. We show mums the way to do it and wait until they are confident. It’s up to them if they want to, if they choose to bottle feed we’ll support them with that, too.

“We like to promote what we call ‘responsive’ feeding, which involves being skin-to-skin, that can be with breast feeding, bottle feeding, and even if the dad is bottle feeding the baby we’d encourage skin contact. It’s all about the closeness.”

A new scheme the unit has been running is to have apprenticeships for maternity care assistants.

Megan Owens. 

Current apprentice Megan Owens said she’d always wanted to be a midwife and that it was a fantastic opportunity to get started.

“I had my own children first and it made me want it more,” She said.

“We carry out observations, working closely with the other MCAs and midwives, and we help with breastfeeding.

“You have to build a good relationship with the mums that come in, some could be here for up to a week.

“There’s so much to learn.”

Student midwive Lisa Downes and midwife Hannah Dowden. 

Midwife, Hannah Dowden, said: “We help with feeding support. Babies can be quite sleepy at first so it’s not easy for mums sometimes. Working on Willow is my favourite area. I love how busy it is, and providing that help and support. Sometimes its just about having a cup of tea and a chat with a new mum.

Student midwives can also be seen on the unit, getting to know each area as they go along.

Student Lisa Downes said that she wanted to become a midwife after hearing the different experiences people can have when giving birth and wanted a change from her admin job.

The neonatal unit looks after babies that are born prematurely from 27 weeks and also full term babies that are unwell.

The standard gestation is around 40 weeks, so babies and their families normally stay in the unit until around their due date.

The unit has 18 cots where staff deliver care in the specialised incubators, 10 of which are ‘special care’, four ‘high dependency’ and four ‘intensive’.

One of the neonatal unit cots.

Susan Fulker, neonatal manager, said: “A big project we are working on is called ‘transitional care’, this is all about keeping mums and babies together.

“Separation causes stress for both mum and baby, which isn’t a good thing.

“For example, mums could struggle to produce breast milk because there’s less stimulation if they are separated.

“We try to encourage as much skin-to-skin contact as possible as this improves hormone production and more importantly, allows mum and baby to bond.

“We care for the whole family, not just the baby. We try to be their friends as well as providing nursing care.”

Another important function of the unit is to provide new parents with skills they might have missed out on due to giving birth early.

The unit teaches parents things about caring for their baby, and vital skills like how to resuscitate a baby if needed.

The Juniper team at the hospital looks after vulnerable women then come in to the unit. The create personalised care plans for woman that need extra support by working with other agencies within the community, such as the mental health team and social workers.

An emotional experience of the day was talking to Keiley Tuck who is crucial to woman when things go wrong. The Rowan Suite is designed for woman to give birth after a miscarriage or a stillbirth.

The hospital sees around 50 cases of this a year Ms Tuck says that although the job is emotionally draining, it is also very fulfilling.

“I go and visit women in their own surroundings, they really appreciate it.

“People think it’s all doom and gloom, but it’s not. We talk about other things as well.

“For some women there’s no real reason they’ve lost the baby, and that can be hard to get their head around. But that can also keep them hopeful that it will work out for them in the future."

New mum Lucie's story of giving birth at the unit:

LUCIE Hodge wasn’t sure what to expect when she and her husband Jon found out they were expected a child. 

But sure enough, on Tuesday, October 17, Lily Ivie was born with the help of the team at Musgrove’s maternity unit. 

The new mum sang the praised of the staff she met during her stay, despite things not going quite to plan. 

“My water broke on Sunday night so we went to the Fern ward but we were sent home until the contractions started," she said. 

“We had apps to help us keep time of my contractions and we knew a lot from using the HANDi app. 

“When I got to the hospital I wanted a low-intervention birth so I chose the water tub, it was quite relaxing - apart from the pain of contractions. 

“But then my contractions stopped so I was sent down to Labour ward and I was in so much pain that I had an epidural. 

“Then things didn’t go as planned when I started pushing, so I had to have a c-section. I was very panicked but I was trying to hold it together. 

“The staff were amazing, everyone knew exactly what was going on all the time, and they really listened and understood what I was going through. 

“It’s not what I had expected, but it’s been good recovering on Willow ward. 

“I’ve actually loved it here and I was really looking forward to giving birth. 

“Now we’re looking forward to getting home and getting into a routine.”