Welcome to the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit, we hope that your time in our care will be as happy and as comfortable as possible.
The Lister’s Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit opened in October 2011 and sees over 5,500 babies born every year. Our aim is to assist you to have a safe pregnancy and a healthy happy baby.
Early bird referral
Organising your pregnancy care early has benefits for you and your baby. To do this, please visit our early bird referral page and complete the online form. Once we receive this form we will send you your appointment to see a midwife within 10 working days.
Screening leaflet
Before you come to your first appointment, it is important that you read the screening leaflet as this contains information about screening tests which are available to you during your pregnancy. The midwife will discuss this further when you come for your first appointment.
Your antenatal care
In this part of our website, we’ve provided you with the following information:
- Antenatal care
- Health and wellbeing in pregnancy
- Birth choices
- Community midwives
- Events and tours
- Antenatal classes
Labour and birth
As you prepare for your labour and the birth of your baby, we’ve brought together a range of information that we hope you’ll find helpful:
- About labour
- Preparation for labour
- Encouraging labour over 37 weeks
- When to come into hospital
- Breast feeding
- Birth afterthoughts
Our facilities
In considering the facilities we have to offer here in the Lister’s Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit, these pages have been set up to help you understand them:
- Staying in hospital
- Midwife-led unit
- Consultant-led unit
- Gloucester ward
- Dacre ward
- Amenity rooms
- Day assessment unit/triage
- Specialist services
Specialist services
Here at the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit, our team provides some specialist services for pregnant women and their babies:
- Fetal medicine
- Neonatal care
- Multiple pregnancy service
- Enhanced maternity services
- Our enhanced maternity service
Welcome to the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage. We are proud to offer women and their families a range of enhanced maternity services, delivered by our experienced and compassionate midwives. The services we provide are in addition to those everyone is offered through the NHS.
Our services
- Scans
- Hypnobirthing
- Active birth workshop
- Post-date complementary therapy clinic
- Non-invasive prenatal testing
You can choose to have your baby at home, in our midwife-led unit, or in the consultant-led unit that provides care for women with more complicated pregnancies.
Currently we have five birthing pools in the maternity unit that may be used for labour and/or birth, including one in our consultant-led unit.
Private scans
Private ultrasound scans for reassurance:
We run a Tuesday evening clinic from 5.30-7.30pm which is staffed by our sonographers to offer scans from 6 weeks to term, to supplement your NHS scans. These scans can be tailored to suit your individual requirements, whether that be reassurance about the health of the pregnancy, your baby’s growth or an opportunity to see baby again, using the same standards and protocols adhered to at routine scans.
Pricing list:
2D scans: £80
4D scans: £100 (24- 32 weeks)
You can book these through the private patients’ department via:
01438 288036 or 01438 286646
or by emailing privatepatients.enh-tr1@nhs.net
Covid-19 guidelines
Following easing of restrictions, Lister Hospital has returned to pre-pandemic support levels for women and people in our care. The following is now in place:
- Two named birthing partners are able to attend throughout the birthing process once in established labour or in a private area onour consultant-led unit (CLU) and midwife-led unit (MLU).
- Women can be accompanied by one nominated birth partner when admitted to the Dacre ward at Lister Hospital’s Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit for an elective caesarean section, or when admitted for induction of labour up until 9pm in the evening.
- One named adult support partner can attend all other assessments, scans or prenatal appointments. (Where required partners may be requested to wait in alternative wait areas until called through.)
- Women can be joined on the antenatal (Dacre) ward between 9am and 9pm, and postnatal (Gloucester) ward between 10am and 8pm at Lister Hospital’s Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit by one nominated birth partner.
No one else, including children, are able to attend at any time, until further notice.
Unfortunately we cannot offer overnight stays for birth partners (between 9pm and 9am) as our inpatient facilities are not suitable for this. This is a permanent situation and is not related to Covid-19.
You can read more information on our Covid-19 maternity restrictions page which explains in what settings your nominated partner can attend.
You can also find out more about our Covid-19 maternity restrictions by reading our frequently asked questions page. You may need to refresh the page to see the latest information.
If you have read these, but have further questions which haven’t been answered – please contact your community midwife.
Feedback
We have had positive feedback from mothers using the services, including from one mother:
“From the moment I was admitted until the time that my baby and I were discharged, the staff at Lister hospital were absolutely amazing. The midwives that assisted me in particular were wonderful, professional and extremely supportive.”
If you would like to give birth at the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit or would like some help to choose where to give birth, take a look at our virtual tour. You can also book directly with us by using the online early Bird Referral booking form.
The Ockenden review
We understand that you may have concerns following the publication of the review of hospital services at Shrewsbury and Telford (known as the Ockenden review). However, please be assured we are committed to providing safe birthing services, regardless of where you birth your baby.
Our Trust is part of the Hertfordshire and West Essex Local Maternity and Neonatal System which continues to review, improve and expand on current services and practices.
We continue to review activity levels daily to ensure safe staffing levels, as the safety of you and your baby remains our top priority.
Our chief nurse, director of maternity and a representative from the Lister Maternity Voices Partnership have been speaking about what this means in the YouTube video below.
If you wish to provide feedback, please contact our Patient Advice Liaison Service (details can be found on the maternity contacts page of this website) or the Lister Maternity Voices Partnership.
If you have any individual questions regarding your care, please speak with your midwife or maternity team.
Maternity and perinatal audit
The Trust is taking part in the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA). The aim of the NMPA is to study how mothers and babies are cared for in maternity units across England, Scotland and Wales. It will make it easier for units to monitor the care they provide. The audit will include information about all mothers who have a baby after 1 April 2014.
Visit www.maternityaudit.org.uk for more information.
National safety thermometer audit programme
The hospital and community midwifery teams participate in the national safety thermometer audit programme. This is a snapshot audit carried out on one day each month looking at harms within maternity care. This data helps us to continually review and improve our services. Click here to view our maternity safety thermometer data.
Lister Maternity Voices Partnership
The Lister Maternity Voices Partnership group listen to, and seek out, the voices of women, families and carers using maternity services, enabling people from diverse communities to have a voice. The group includes a combination of service users, hospital staff, commissioning groups, GPs and volunteers and they hold regular meetings locally. Visit the Lister Maternity Voices Facebook page to find out more.
