Dear John,
Sorry for emailing so soon after my last one to you but it's important - the Te Awakairangi Birthing Centre at Melling is at risk and I've launched an urgent campaign to save it. Please click here to sign the petition to send a message to the Hutt Valley DHB and/or the government to fund the centre! I have written the DHB and to Ministers asking for urgent funding and soon I will update them with how many people have signed. The more people the better!
The centre was built only in 2018 and since then it has provided fantastic service to Hutt families. However it is likely to close at the end of September unless it gets funding from the DHB or government.
For years I have argued the local DHB, which receives funding to provide maternity care for Hutt mothers, should facilitate their choices and fund the centre. They have adamantly refused and now their obstinacy is putting the centre at risk. If the Birthing Centre closes, then mothers will be forced to give birth in an already-stressed Hutt hospital, or at home.
If it closes it would leave the entire Wellington region without any non-hospital birthing facilities. It would be bad for mothers, bad for babies and bad for the Hutt.
The service at the Birthing Centre is free to all women who are eligible for free hospital care. The most amazing thing about the service is that women can stay for two nights after they give birth; which is often not the case in hospital. There is a real sense of community at the centre and mothers who given birth there have raved to me about it.
Lots of women want to give birth outside a hospital environment – for example those with a history of traumatic births or with mental health issues. I think those choices should be facilitated and supported.
Hutt maternity is in crisis already and the closure of the birthing centre would make a bad situation even worse.
We need to act urgently here. Time is precious - we have just a few days. So please share the petition and encourage as many people as possible to sign!
Thanks for your support.
Chris
P. S For more background, please read "Emily Writes" here.
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