Halcyon Midwife Led Birthing Centre – Official Opening
Posted on October 31, 2011
The new centre was completed on time in early October, with much praise received so far, not least from Julie Etchingham, journalist and ITN newsreader who officially opened the facility. Julie said "I think I’ve just been to the most beautiful place in the NHS. The women of Smethwick in the West Midlands now have, on their doorstep, a midwife-led maternity unit which should be the envy of the country. There are no bleak institutional corridors, no forbidding desks. The walls are curved and painted in restful lavenders and pinks, there is an aromatherapy room – a garden and a communal area for tea and coffee, shared (crucially) between families and staff to ensure there are no barriers, real or psychological, between the midwives and the women who come to give birth."
The Consultant Midwife, Kathryn Gutteridge involved with the procurement of the new facility said “It is only right that women have a place to give birth that is special and certainly Halcyon will be that. I know that we will be the envy of many maternity services up and down the country”. The new facility provides three birthing suites and will be open to prospective Sandwell mothers on 31st October 2011.
