The festive and new year period brought joy and celebration to both staff and service users as midwives at Lister Hospital welcomed new life to the Lister Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit.
Over 4,500 babies are born at Lister Hospital every year – of which 91 were born between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day in 2023.
Babies born over Christmas were gifted Christmas baby hats and the East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals Charity kindly donated an additional 60 gifts to be given to families in the service during the festive period.
A total of ten babies were born on Christmas Eve, nine on Christmas Day, thirteen on Boxing Day and eight on New Year’s Day.
One family who welcomed new life over the festive period were Maddy and Aaron whose third baby, Lexie, was born in the Maternity Led Unit (MLU) at 8.05am on Christmas Day.
Parents Maddy and Aaron spoke about their Christmas birth experience:
The care and support we received on MLU was fantastic. We felt well supported, the environment – and birthing pool experience – felt calm and safe, and we were home in time to enjoy Christmas dinner with our family.
Maddy and Aaron, parents to Max, Libby and Lexie
Director of Midwifery Amanda Rowley added:
It fills me with pride to see our maternity unit support thousands of women and birthing people each year as they welcome new life to the world – and it is a joy for our wonderful midwives and maternity teams working over Christmas to celebrate those born during such a special time of year.
Director of Midwifery, Amanda Rowley
On behalf of all of the maternity team at Lister Hospital, we would like to wish the families of those born in our services the very best and I would like to thank our wonderful colleagues who worked over the Christmas and New Year period – and throughout the year – to look after the families in our care.
The Trust’s Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership also took part in Christmas celebrations, working alongside volunteers from Inner Wheel in GB&I to kindly donate over 100 gifts to staff on antenatal and postnatal wards to show their appreciation for the support provided to women and birthing people during 2023.
