24/07/2025
In my roles as a Antenatal educator and Community Midwife, I am passionate about choice when it comes to care for women and families…
Did you know Samuel Johnson (SJ) Midwifery Led Unit (MLU) is at very real risk of being closed permanently as a birthing unit?
It is a beautiful setting with a home from home feel. The facility offers three birthing rooms, two of which of which have pools. Pre-Covid 24hr support was provided from SJ to women and families, which was stopped during the pandemic. Since then SJ has remained open for antenatal and postnatal care 9-5, but the birthing rooms have gone unused and remained empty.
Women who wish not to birth in a clinical environment like a hospital, or who are looking for a more relaxed environment where they are supported by midwifery and maternity staff (but not wishing to have a home birth), those looking to use alternative therapies in labour, have one to one care and be supported by experts in normality, reduce their risk of unnecessary intervention and have exceptional postnatal care will no longer have this choice.
Why?
Whilst data and studies don’t lie, they can be twisted to hide the truth or follow a set agenda… Results of studies into the use of SJ MLU have shown that women do not request or require its use. This does not reflect the voices I hear on a daily basis!
The reality is that in the past 5-6 years this choice has been taken away and as such those local to SJ (or with SJ as their preference) have been forced to seek alternatives such as independent midwives , home births or are travelling further afield to MLUs in other areas, options they may not have ordinarily chosen.
As a result of this increased use of alternatives and an increasing local population, greater pressure is also being put on hospitals which are often over stretched with staffing pressures along with the Community Midwifery teams.
What can be done?
Use your voice… those directly affected, can have your say on your local unit and the importance of it staying open by finding out more at Save Samuel Johnson Maternity Unit or even just completing this short survey.
https://staffsstoke.icb.nhs.uk/midwife-led-birthing-units/
We are all guilty of speaking up when something doesn’t go the way we want or had planned, but how many of us make a point to shout about it before it’s too late?
Come on people, let’s save this local facility, if not for ourselves, but for our families futures and our local community!
Birthing services at midwife-led units at County Hospital, Stafford, and Samuel Johnson Community Hospital, Lichfield.
