Home birthing service

Due to unprecedented pressures on our Community Midwifery services created by a number of factors; we have had to take the extremely difficult decision to temporarily suspend home birth services.

This is not a decision we have taken lightly, we have explored all reasonable options to address the challenges we are facing. However, the safety of our women and their babies must be our priority.

We understand the impact these decisions have on women under our care and we are working extremely hard to be able to have our home birth services return to normal as soon as possible.

While home birth services are temporarily suspended we are encouraging women to revisit their birth plan and access the excellent low risk rooms we have available at the University Hospital of North Durham or Darlington Memorial Hospital.

There have been some issues with the water supply and pressure at Darlington Memorial Hospital which has affected showers on the maternity unit and the birthing pool.  We apologise for the inconvenience and distress this may have caused.

The issue with the showers have now been resolved and showers are now available for women in our care and bathing has remained an option throughout.  We are working to also make the birthing pool available as soon as possible. The birthing pool at University Hospital of North Durham is available for women wishing to discuss a water birth.

Published: Updated 23 September 2021