Aston Villa has become the second major football club to join forces with Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust to deliver maternity care.
Clinics for expectant mums and new parents will start from Monday 27 April at Villa Park, set up by the healthcare provider which runs Sandwell and City Hospitals.
Postnatal and antenatal clinics by midwives are already been held at West Bromwich Albion. These services will also be available at Aston Villa along with health visitors holding appointments for new parents as well as newborn hearing screening tests.
Deputy director of Midwifery, Louise Wilde, who is also a Villa fan, said: “I am really pleased that Aston Villa agreed to accommodate the Trust. I decided to approach our local football teams because they are in a perfect position to help us deliver these clinics. There are no matches being played and geographically they are both in the right place for our patients.
“It also provides an alternative to a hospital setting which some of our women felt anxious about coming to.”
There will be a total of five clinics held from Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm and they will be based in an area of the North Stand. Louise added: “There’s a lovely baby weighing area, and it’s a really comfortable space for those attending. We’ve already been getting some great feedback from those attending the Hawthorns, home of the Baggies.”
Villa Park will be staffed by 10 midwives, and two support workers, with two health visitors taking appointments. It will be for women who are 24 weeks onwards and there will be postnatal clinics for those who have been discharged. It will be as safe as the services that are currently provided by the Trust’s midwives within the community, and in GP clinics. Should the need arise, they will be able to call on the ambulance service.
Guy Rippon, Head of Foundation and Community Partnerships at Aston Villa, said: “We are delighted to be able to help out our local NHS hospitals by opening up Villa Park as a temporary maternity clinic. During these uncertain times, our famous home will provide a safe environment for local expectant mothers and their midwives and nurses to be able to carry out their vital work.”
Photo credit: Neville Williams/Aston Villa
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