I recently gave birth to my first child at Broome Regional Hospital. I feel the facilities available for women at this hospital are well overdue for an upgrade.
I found the obstetric and midwifery care of an excellent standard for a country hospital, it's such a shame the ward doesn't share the same standard.
Since Broome Hospital is now the regional centre for the Kimberley region there has been an increase in the women using this facility in recent years, however, it hasn't had an upgrade since becoming the major centre or probably since it opened.
There are only two labour and birth suites which are extremely small and old. In the middle of the wet season I was placed in one of these rooms which the air-conditioning wasn't working. I believe for patient safety these need to be made bigger. During a birth there can be multiple people in the one room, obstetric teams, paediatric teams plus midwives and family. The bath available to women for labour is so shallow it wouldn't be effective for a pain relief option as the water doesn't even cover your belly! Post my long labour and Caesarean section I was extremely sleep deprived, I was placed into a 4-bed room with two other postnatal women and their babies. This room was extremely noisy as its next to a sliding door and a fire safe door, which staff used all night. To expect women to be able to recover from their birth in these room conditions is outrageous and I believe my postnatal recovery was affected by these conditions. Postnatal depression and anxiety is linked to sleep deprivation. Caring for your own newborn post a long labour is hard enough without also being woken by other women and their babies in the same room. Broome Hospital doesn't have any single rooms for postnatal women! They only have two and four bedrooms.
"Labour, birth and postnatal facilities"
About: Broome Health Campus / Maternity/Midwifery Broome Health Campus Maternity/Midwifery Broome 6725
Posted by New broome mumma (as ),
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