I've been with the birthing centre since it opened, doing full time, then casual.

I love being there seeing women come and go, giving birth and being able to look after them, and their child.

I've never seen mothers/fathers sooo relaxed and feeling and looking refreshed after giving birth like they do when they go to be discharged from the Te Awakairangi Birthing Centre, compared to being at the hospital. 
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I've birthed both my daughters at the birthing centre - I felt so supported, encouraged and empowered during these births.

The environment that was created at the birthing centre was amazing and I feel it was a main factor in having to amazing, completely natural births.

The staff were incredible, the facilities were luxurious and the food was stunning.

I often recount my amazing birth stories to other people.

I was able to become a mother feeling nourished and supported, and both occasions I left feeling restored and excited for the next steps in my daughters lives.

I feel privileged and honoured to have given birth naturally in such an amazing environment and feel so sad that it might be taken away from women and whanau of the Lower Hutt region.

I was turned away from Hutt Hospital while in labour at 41 weeks 5 days pregnant. They were closed - no rooms, beds or staff available, despite me being told I needed a hospital birth.

There was no way I'd make it to Wellington Hospital, I had barely made it to Hutt Hospital. Thankfully the Birthing Centre was just down the road and I made it there just in time to hit the 'transition' stage of labour. Without this facility I honestly don't know what I would have done.

I was transferred by ambulance to Hutt Hospital immediately after birth for emergency surgery. Te Awakairangi Birthing Centre staff provided warm winter woolies for my baby for her first midnight car ride, barely a hour or two old. Of course I didn't pack those - none of this was in my birth plan.

The poor state of affairs at Hutt Hospital was quickly apparent. After surgery the surgeon couldn't find a midwife to bring my baby to me so I was sent back to the ward rapidly to be with her. I found my partner shell shocked and alone. No one had told him what was going on, when I'd be back or what he should do with his new baby.

Many of the staff seemed stressed, often had little time to provide support and were sometimes unempathetic or unkind. The delivery ward was closed twice more during the time I was there. That means it closed 3 times in 5 days.

Hutt Hospital maternity department is in a terrible state, but everyone already knows that. There have been far too many poor reports and horrifying headlines about poor care leading to disability and death.

When I found out I was pregnant my first thought was fear. Not about being pregnant but about giving birth in hospital. As a child I was very sick in and out of hospital a lot, which later turned into a fear of hospitals.

I was so thankful that I managed to get an LMC and was able to have the option to give birth in the birthing centre. It was a very relaxed environment that did not add any further stress to myself and my partner where the hospital would have. The day my daughter was born it was soon discovered she had a respiratory issue and was placed on oxygen and monitored.

We were then transferred to hospital where she was admitted into SCBU for 5 days. I am thankful for the prompt attention we received from the multiple midwives involved in my birth. The care I received whilst at the birthing centre was a thousand times better then the care I received when is hospital where I was often left in pain with no medication waiting after repeatedly hitting the call button.

After having all of my appointments at the facility I felt like we were quite friendly with the majority of the staff and was adamant that I wanted to give birth at the facility.

However with my son determined not to come out on his own accord I had to be induced which meant a hospital birth. Needless to say I was a bit upset that the one thing I wanted for my birth could not come true.

After struggling with breast feeding at the hospital when we were offered to transfer to the birthing centre I jumped at the chance because I know that they are fairly supportive and a lot more hands on with the breast feeding.

Upon arriving the receptionist Angela knew as soon as she saw me what I was there for and lunch had been saved for me as I had not had lunch at the hospital.

I am now breast feeding confidently and without any struggles with lots of thanks from this centre. I feel like without this support I would have given up hope with breast feeding, which being able to do so has only allowed me to bond further with my son.

​I am a midwife of 30 years, I have had the privilege of being at births in a variety of birth spaces, initially all in the hospital until 2001 when I became a Lead Maternity Caregiver and started attending homebirths, this undoubtedly changed my point of view on birth.

I saw how the home environment supports a physiological flowing birth with less complications. I saw how the women were more comfortable and more able to relax. Not every woman wants to birth at home.  For some women going to a special place separate from home, but with a homelike environment is more conducive for them to relax.

Te Awakairangi provides a new choice that was very much lacking in the Hutt region. Initially it was underutilised because the DHB didn’t support it and a lot of the community presumed it must cost them something.

​I have cared for women from all demographics of age, ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds and they have all shared a love of what Te Awakairangi has offered them.

They love the birthing space with their own luxurious room with ensuite bathroom with a big birthing bath, dimmed lighting, quietness, and a big double bed. This home-like but better than home and birth-perfect environment fosters feelings of comfort and calm for the birthing woman, and as the research shows increases her chance of an empowering and safe birth.

But that’s not all…after the birth, partner or support person can stay, there is ample breastfeeding and new parenting support, nutritious food, and a calm nurturing environment to be enjoyed for 48 hours before discharge to home. Without a doubt I saw more women have empowering well supported births, lots of waterbirth, woman leading their care and lots more success at breastfeeding than when women are in the clinical non-homelike environment of the hospital.

I gave birth to my first child in January of this year and was very fortunate to be able to give birth at the birthing centre. Although at times it didn't look like this was going to be possible.

When finding out I was pregnant at only a few weeks, I called my GP and he recommended I look for a midwife asap. It was really important to us that we had continuity of care, during prenatal, labour, and postnatal, so we were looking for a community LMC.

Our first choice was to have a midwife that was able to birth at the Birthing Centre. If we couldn't find one available, then our second choice was to have a community LMC so we'd still ensure continuity of care. Third option was to pay for an Obstetrician. And the last choice was to go through the hospital midwife group as this meant we'd be unsure who we'd see at appointments and more concerning for us, being unsure who would be there during labour.

You might be wondering why continuity of care was so important to us, this was because we wanted the process to be as relaxed and enjoyable as possible as we believed this would give us the best outcome when it came to the birth of our precious first child (the most natural birth with as little intervention as possible). This is the same reason we wanted to labour at the birthing unit.

The hunt began... I called and emailed numerous midwives to find most were already completely booked for our estimated due date - this was very surprising (and concerning) given I was only six weeks pregnant. It all became pretty stressful as I kept hunting day after day for someone to guide us through this unknown journey. I called, emailed, asked for recommendations, looked at local midwife pages, searched social media - all to get the same response, no one was available to help us.

After a few weeks we finally found a midwife who was a part of a new continuity group the DHB/Lower Hutt Hospital had pulled together - a group of midwives that would work in a similar way community midwives work, meaning we would get to see the same person for our appointments and they would also be there for the birth (all going to plan). We met this lady and felt comfortable to have her as our midwife - luckily, as we didn't have much choice. However, this meant I wouldn't be able to use the birthing unit which was upsetting for us. All was going until unfortunately, when I was 20 weeks pregnant this midwife called with some bad news - the hospital was disbanding the group as two of the midwives had left due to being overworked. I was left with no midwife and was extremely concerned that it would be impossible to find someone at this stage in the pregnancy when I had found it hard at the beginning... After speaking to a friend who had recently had a baby, she said she would ask her midwife if there was any chance she would be able to support us. We were very lucky that she said she would squeeze us in given our unfortunate circumstances.

We met with the second midwife, she was extremely lovely and knowledgeable and we felt comfortable with her - again we were lucky this was the case. The best part, she was registered to use the birthing unit! We worked with this midwife up until I was 40 weeks 3 days, when I received a call from her to say she needed to leave the industry immediately.
You can imagine how upsetting this was for us (and her) given how late in the pregnancy I was. We were very lucky that she had found someone to take over and we met with the new midwife that day - again, another amazing lady came to save the day. This midwife was also registered at the birthing unit, we were so happy this was the case as we'd mentally prepared ourselves that this is where our baby would be born.

Fast forward to the big event (I'll spare you all the details), after many hours in labour we arrived at the birthing unit - the room was ready for our arrival (lights dimmed, warm, bed ready, bath running), the staff were there to greet us, it was quiet and calm - I instantly felt relaxed. The environment was exactly what I had imagined would help me through the birth of our first child. I never felt at risk or like I wasn't receiving a high level of support. I had quite a long labour but we got there in the end - our beautiful baby boy was born with no intervention (from what I know I don't believe this would have been the case had we been at the hospital).

We spent the next two nights in the birthing centre and the support only got better. There were so many benefits in using the birthing centre - I was delivered delicious nutritious food and drinks which was so important after the energy used during labour, we were offered continuous support to help us with the unknowns of being first time parents, there was plenty of room for our guests who were made to feel very welcome, it continued to be quiet and calm meaning we were able to get much needed rest, and best of all my husband was able to stay with us in a queen size bed - an absolute game changer! No one wants their husband to have to leave them after the most amazing (and strenuous) event of their lives!!

The room had everything we needed and the staff were always available very quickly when we needed them. Although labour is not a pleasant thing to go through, the experience was positive given it was here and I was so grateful to use this facility for so many reasons - most of all for the caring, nurturing, calming environment.

I truly believe that things would have been much different if we'd been at the hospital.

These midwives are doing a phenomenal job, they carry so much responsibility bringing our precious babies into this world, and they continuously dig so deep to give the families they support everything they have. It would be an absolute waste for this facility to be closed.

The focus should be flipped to work on how it can be utilised more so others can look back on their experience as I do.