Maternity Unit with Delivery Suite

Having your baby with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust

For our population, who access our services, it shouldn’t make a difference whether or not they’re coming on to the North Tees and Hartlepool, South Tees or at our Friarage sites. They should be able to expect the same level of service no matter where they access it from. And we’ve got a consistency across our group model.

Choosing where you want to give birth is probably one of the first decisions that you will make in your pregnancy. We appreciate that it can be a really difficult decision to make. Particularly if you don’t know what your options are, so your community midwife is there to provide you with information for options.

The first is our obstetric unit at Stockton, so that’s the University Hospital of North Tees, and then we also have the option for home birth. So depending on whether your care is high risk or low risk, that might help you to choose what you want to do. But ultimately, wherever you choose to decide to have your baby, we’ll take care of you. Our team will look after you and we’ll make sure that you and your baby are safe.

So if you think that you’re in labour you would call the maternity advice line. We would invite you in for assessment. You would come to us using the main entrance, where the revolving doors are situated. Make an immediate right, follow the signs for ward 18 to 19 and you would press the buzzer and we would come and let you in.

Our delivery rooms are lovely. They’re all en-suites with either baths or showers. We have mood lighting, twinkling lights in the ceiling, aromatherapy diffusers. You can bring your favourite playlist, your own little speaker and we will try and make it as comfortable as possible for you.

We just want to make sure that you’ve got a nice relaxing, calming environment to have your baby.

You’re allowed one birthing partner to stay throughout the duration here at North Tees. in the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal period. So you can have someone there with you at all times to look after you and to help look after your baby, ss well as the care that we all give you.

At North Tees, we have an on-site canteen, an on-site coffee shop and over the road we have a bakery. We will provide you with food throughout your stay with us and following delivery we’ll give you the best tea and toast you’ve ever had.

Pain relief in labour, and the need for pain relief in labour is quite subjective. It depends on how you are. The most common that is used is what we call entonox, which is what we call gas and air. if that’s not enough, there are oral pain relief options like paracetamol and codeine. If you need something more, then you can have the injections, which is the diamorphine and in the end, you do have the epidural, which is administered to you by an anaesthetist and monitored by your midwife. In the end pain relief is entirely your choice. You could have a say regarding what you want.

About 20% of women will need an emergency C-section and that hasn’t changed much over the years. But now you have the choice, and many women are opting more for c-sections. So if you need to go to theatre as an emergency, the theatre is within the same block as your labour room. It just takes us five minutes to wheel you down.

It can be a scary situation if it’s an emergency, but there are various categories of an emergency and most of the time, you’ll have time to discuss your need for a cesearian section. We’ll try to make it as communicative and seamless for you. At every point, you will get a chance to discuss your need for ac-section and the steps that is coming with it during the whole process.

Our special care baby unit is manned by consultant paediatricians and neonatologists. We have specialist paediatric and neonatal nurses. At the moment we care for babies who are 30 weeks or older. Anyone younger than that we try to transfer them out to our sister unit, which is James Cook University Hospital.

Giving birth and being a mother is a wonderful feeling. But the fact that you have such a good team working for you should give you a lot of reassurance and we would love you to choose our hospital to give birth.