Maternity and newborn — Waikato

Obstetrics deals with issues that arise in maternity care, treating any complications of pregnancy and childbirth and any that arise after the birth. Waikato Hospital provides maternity and obstetric facilities and specialist care for local and regional patients requiring elective (planned) or emergency treatments.

Your lead maternity carer (LMC) or doctor can refer you to the Waikato Hospital services if you have a condition that may affect your pregnancy, birth or newborn. The obstetric services and LMC work together to ensure that you receive the best care and outcome.

Outpatient Antenatal Clinic

Provides outpatient care for women to have planned appointments with the medical team to assess and monitor their pregnancy. The clinic comprises of 6 assessment rooms and 2 obstetric ultrasound rooms.

Day Assessment Unit (DAU)

Caters for high risk women who are not acutely unwell but require increased surveillance during their pregnancy or postnatally. The clinic is led by senior midwives and is designed for women who are not requiring admission, or medical team assessment, but require more care and monitoring than a lead maternity carer or GP can provide in the primary setting.

Women’s Assessment Unit (WAU)

Women ‘s assessment unit is like an emergency department for pregnancy, providing services for women over 16 weeks gestation. WAU is located next to the delivery suite and is equipped with 8 rooms for assessment and procedures.

Bereavement care

The Manaia Room is located within the women’s assessment unit near the delivery suite. It is a space to care for the needs of women and her whānau whose baby has passed away before, during or just following birth. It is a large en-suite room for birth and converts to a postnatal stay room with a double bed for parents to stay and spend time with their baby. 

Antenatal and postnatal ward

Provides inpatient care for women with complications during pregnancy requiring hospital admission and postnatal care for women or their babies who have complications during birth or following birth that require observations or care that is only available in the hospital.

Delivery suite

In addition to 7 birthing rooms, the delivery suite is equipped with one emergency obstetric theatre available 24/7 with a 2 bedded high dependency unit and a 3 bedded post anaesthetic care unit. Planned (elective) caesarean sections take place in the hospital’s main theatre.

Induction of labour

Waikato Hospital provides induction of labour for people who have a condition where it is safer, or you or your baby, if the baby is born. In most instances the hospital staff start your labour and then care during labour is by your LMC.

Obstetric Anaesthetic Services

Waikato hospital provides access to epidural and other pain relief options for people during their labour. Options available to each person vary based on their LMC ability to provide monitoring. 

Lactation consultants are available to provide breastfeeding support during your stay at Waikato Hospital. Lactation consultants are also available through the community breastfeeding services.

Community breastfeeding services (internal link)

Whānau Mai are a community midwifery team employed by Waikato Hospital. Whānau Mai provide antenatal and postnatal care for pregnant women who have not been able to find a LMC, or for people who have had a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) but live in another town. 

Labour and birth is only available in Waikato Hospital if you are cared for by Whānau Mai. Labour and birth care is provided by the hospital midwives on rostered shifts in Waikato Hospital delivery suite. Whānau Mai  do not provide after-hours care.

To contact Whānau Mai:

• phone: 0800 476 867
• email: whanaumaimidwife@waikatodhb.health.nz

Waikato Hospital maternity services are committed to supporting you to incorporate your cultural values into your birth experience, labour and maternity care. 

Whenua

At Waikato Hospital we encourage māmā who are keeping their whenua to find a whānau member to take the whenua home directly from the delivery suite, however, we do provide temporary storage of your whenua in Maternity Ward E2.

When complications such as infections, bleeding, prematurity, or a sick baby, occur in your pregnancy, or at the time of birth, the doctor may recommend and request your permission to send your whenua for examination. This may give important information that can help to explain what has happened and to improve the care we give you in future pregnancies.

The whenua tests require your informed consent and an explanation about them will be provided before any testing is carried out. We will try to return the whenua to you as soon as we can. Testing of the whenua usually takes about seven days. 

Please let staff know if you need your whenua returned quickly and they will clearly document this on the request form that goes with the whenua to the laboratory.  

During your pregnancy your midwife may refer you to see doctors at the Waikato Hospital antenatal clinic for a pre-existing health condition or complication that has occurred during your pregnancy. 

Depending on your health condition there are two types of referrals:

• Consultation referral – depending on the outcome of the consultation, either your midwife will receive advice and information from the hospital but continue making decisions with you about your care, or your care might be transferred to the hospital team.
• Transfer of care referral – when your midwife transfers your care to the hospital team, which takes on monitoring your pregnancy and making decisions with you about your care.

Consultation referrals

Consultation referrals take place at an outpatient clinic. This is what to expect if you receive a consultation referral:

• you will be seen by an obstetrician, which is a doctor with specialist training and experience in complicated pregnancy care
• depending on your condition, the doctor may assess your health needs, discuss them with you and write to your midwife about your ongoing care requirements and plans
• your midwife will continue to make decisions with you about your care and birth plan and will consult with the hospital team as needed
• you may return to the clinic for ongoing appointments, scans and other tests, but still be under the care of your midwife, who will remain your main point of contact
• your midwife will provide your care during labour and birth. If you birth at Waikato Hospital the hospital midwifery team may also provide support to your midwife
• following a consultation referral, in some circumstances a discussion will be had with you about making the decision to transfer your care to the hospital team.

Transfer of care referrals

For some women with complex health needs or pregnancies, their care will be transferred directly to the hospital medical team. For example, women with type 1 diabetes. This is what to expect if you receive a transfer of care referral:

• you will have an initial appointment with an obstetrician. After your health needs have been assessed you will be monitored regularly by the antenatal clinic
• the hospital medical team will become the main health professional making decisions with you about your care and birth plan. You should still contact your midwife for any urgent concerns during pregnancy
• if your situation changes, or after your baby is born, your care can be transferred back to your midwife
• depending on your condition you may attend one of the hospital clinics or services frequently to monitor your pregnancy.
• sometimes your care may be shared between the hospital and your midwife in the community
• your midwife will remain your main point of contact
• depending on your condition, the hospital midwives or your midwife (or a combination of both) will provide care during labour and birth, with the oversight of the medical team.

Women who have had a consultation at the Waikato Hospital antenatal clinic may need frequent monitoring by a midwife. This may be more than your own midwife in the community can provide.

If this is the case you may be asked to attend the Waikato Hospital day assessment unit for follow up. You will be given an appointment to attend the clinic, which is open 8:30am to 2:30pm, Monday to Friday.

At the clinic you will be seen by a midwife who will review any tests and monitoring you need. Depending on your needs you may have your blood pressure taken, blood tests, urine tests or be on a monitor to listen to your baby’s heart rate and movements. If anything is not in the expected range she will discuss your ongoing care with a doctor and a new plan of care will be made.

You will continue to attend the clinic for as long as your doctor has requested and the frequency of your attendance will depend on your condition.

In most situations you will have another appointment with the doctors at a later date.