£7million redevelopment of Women's Hospital baby unit revealed

Mar 6 2009 by Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

“Some babies just need a little extra support during their first few days of life while the smallest and sickest babies need intensive care for several months before they are well enough to go home.”

Births in the city are expected to rise by an unprecedented 5,000 in the next two to three years putting more pressure on maternity and neonatal services.

Latest Birmingham City Council figures reveal there were 2,000 more births in the city in 2007 compared to five years earlier in 2002.

The causes of the surge are believed to be more young women of child-bearing age living in Birmingham, and a new wave of immigrants.

Birmingham Women’s Hospital last year raised concerns among commissioning Primary Care Trust managers after it ran up extra costs by treating far more pregnant women than planned, going £57,000 over budget in June.

An expectant mother, Zakera Reyes, a 32-year-old engineer with Network Rail, also complained that despite living two miles away from the Women’s Hospital, where she had her first child, she was unable to have her twins there as they were fully booked.

Parents and babies treated on neonatal wards at Birmingham Women’s Hospital will come together for a thanksgiving service at Birmingham Cathedral before the renovations begin at 2pm on Saturday March 14.