Statistics relating to maternity and childbirth at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading reveal approximately 13 babies are delivered there each day.
The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, centred at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, is the main provider of maternity services in Reading, Wokingham, Newbury and West Berkshire.
Across its sites, 13 babies are born each day.
Typically, one child is born per day at the Royal Berkshire Hospital’s Rushey Unit, which has four rooms that are dedicated to providing comfort and relaxation to a woman who is in labour.
One child per day is also typically delivered from home across the Trust’s care area.
That amounts to approximately 4,600 deliveries per year.
The figures have been revealed in a graphic called ‘A Day in Maternity Services’. The stats are provided in a report on work to address inequalities in maternity care.
The graphic shows a woman in a birthing pool at the Rushey Unit supported by a nurse.
To help address maternity inequalities, the Trust is trailing a new translation service, which provides patients access to an online translator 24 hours a day.
To tackle inequalities for black women, staff are improving booking maternity appointments for these women, and is also working with Royal Berkshire Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership and black community leaders to ensure women have maternity appointments before 10 weeks of their likely birth date.
Working in association with the Trust, the Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality (ACRE) and Community Health Champion volunteers liaise with patients to provide advice and support.
The report also provides the statistics for young children who have sadly died.
The Trust provides care to mothers who have lost their children through its ‘Rainbow Team’.
This team looked after 58 women who sadly lost their children in 2022, with two children being lost to stillbirth in that year.
The team looked after 63 women who experienced child loss in 2023, with one reported stillbirth.
The Trust also has the specialist Poppy Team which helps women and couples with mental health challenges and neuro diverse patients.
As well as the Rushey Unit, the Royal Berkshire Hospital has the Buscot Ward, which looks after children born prematurely or with sickness which require care.
The figures have been published as Christine Harding, director of Midwifery at the Trust, is due to present the inequalities in maternity care report to Reading Borough Council’s adult social care, children’s services and education committee on Wednesday, January 15.
