KEY POINTS:
Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland yesterday unveiled its answer to the district's baby boom - a new $7 million birthing unit.
The parents of Counties Manukau are continuing to outstrip official birth-rate predictions, producing more than 8000 babies in the last June year - a rise of 25 per cent over six years.
The new assessment, labour and birthing unit is on level two of the hospital's Galbraith building. It can be accessed from the Hospital Rd entrance and lifts which will offer a "priority override" button for women who need to get to the ward fast.
Last year there were 6854 births at Middlemore - the rest were at the Counties Manukau District Health Board's three primary community units for straightforward births - but the hospital's old birthing unit was built to cope with just 3500 a year.
Several times last year the unit could not cope with extra admissions because of lack of space or midwives and some women had to go Auckland City Hospital or North Shore Hospital to give birth.
Counties Manukau's general manager of Kidz First and women's health, Nettie Knetsch, said that should no longer happen "because of the facility - but there's still the issue of staffing".
The old unit had 12 birthing suites; the new one has 17, plus four "flexi rooms" which can be used for induction of labour, assessment and giving birth. Ms Knetsch said 15 to 20 per cent of the health board's 160 midwifery positions were vacant - and this was on top of the area's shortage of independent midwives.
"We will still be diverting to the primary maternity units because of short-staffing until January, when the new graduates start."
The birthing rooms are large and sunny and all have an en-suite. Many also have a deep bath, although they are called "pain-relief baths" and not birthing pools.
"If low-risk women want a birth-pool experience we put them in the primary units because the numbers are lower, it's a slower pace and it's easier to do the birth in the pool," Ms Knetsch said.
The South Auckland Health Foundation raised more than $1.5 million towards the unit's cost.
