St John of God Geraldton Hospital resumes postnatal care

10 Jan 2022

The service will offer women who have given birth at Geraldton Health Campus the option to transfer to St John of God Geraldton Hospital for postnatal care, within four to six hours after birth.

This postnatal care and support includes help with breastfeeding, parent-craft, care for mothers recovering after birth, and newborn wellbeing checks, and is modelled on similar postnatal-only services run internationally.

St John of God Geraldton Hospital Chief Executive Officer Phillip Balmer said it was exciting to be once again providing postnatal care for women and babies, after the maternity service was temporarily suspended in November 2021 due to a shortage of midwives.

“Since making the difficult decision to suspend the maternity service late last year, we have worked hard to develop a new model of care that offers privately insured women and families the benefits of private maternity care while ensuring we deliver a safe and high quality service,” he said.

“Key to establishing this service has been the efforts of our caregivers and obstetricians at our hospital, for which we are very grateful, as well as everyone at Geraldton Health Campus. We thank them for their support and ongoing assistance through this period.”

Through this model of care, women will give birth at Geraldton Health Campus and can choose to transfer to St John of God Geraldton Hospital for postnatal care with their baby in consultation with their treating team. 

St John of God Geraldton Hospital will provide transport and clinical support from a midwife or nurse for women and babies who transfer to the hospital. 

When at the hospital, women continue to be cared for by their obstetrician, as well as being supported by midwives, nurses, allied health clinicians and paediatricians.

Mr Balmer said the postnatal service offered mums and babies the opportunity to enjoy an extended hospital stay, with partners also able to stay in hospital overnight so they can spend time bonding as a family.

“We know our hospital and maternity care is highly valued in our community so we are really pleased that we can once again offer people living in Geraldton and the surrounding areas some of the benefits of private maternity care close to home,” he said. 

“We are fortunate within our community to have dedicated doctors, midwives and nurses working closely together across the public and private system, to put women at the centre of the care they provide throughout pregnancy, childbirth and beyond.”

The hospital is continuing to explore other viable models of care to expand its service offering in the future.