Arthur's Community Magazine

COMMUNITY NEWS Maternity Care in Ealing Since the closure of Ealing Hospitals maternity unit, maternity care in the borough has been transferred to Hillingdon hospital.

Most maternity units in England do not have a special area for mother who’s babies either die at birth or are still born. These unfortunate women have to be looked after in the same ward as mothers and families who are celebrating the birth of their new arrival. You can only shudder at the thought of what they must be going through.

Hillingdon Hospital are therefor looking at creating a “Maternity Bereavement Suite”. This would consist of an area connected too but totally separate from the maternity ward. It would consist of a bedroom, lounge area, bathroom and kitchen.

This would then become a self-contained area for these women and their families to recover and come to terms with their loss.

This project is still in planning although it is beginning to move along through all the various departments and approval stages. Now it is getting to that time to help fund raise.

The Rotary Club of Greenford have for many years had close ties to the maternity care for Greenford, Northolt, Perivale and N Ealing. Following the movement of the midwifery school from Perivale into Ealing Hospital and now onto Hillingdon, to which we give a prize to recognise and help in the training to the best student midwife each year in the memory of a past member Dr Claude Osborne.

With this in mind we as a club of businessmen and women in the area have made it our major project for this year and probably the next year or two to help get this done.

At the moment is projected that the costs will be around £250,000 and we are hoping to start the pot going with £20,000 at the end of June 2020. We are in the 10