We’ve made some temporary changes to our maternity services, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Please see details below, including some information videos.
Latest visiting restrictions by hospital
To help us keep our patients, staff and visitors safe, stop the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19), visiting restrictions are in place – please see click here for the latest information
Maternity
If you have any concerns around your pregnancy please call our Triage Helpline
Tel: (01323) 413771
The wearing of face coverings or masks while using maternity services
Because there has been some inaccurate information circulating, we want to reassure you that you will not be asked to wear a face mask during your labour.
The times when you will be asked to wear a facemask are:
- when you come to the hospital for any antenatal or postnatal appointments
- when you are transferring from one ward area to another
- if you are admitted to stay with us, once you have been reviewed and your temperature is normal you can remove your facemask.
Thank you for your ongoing support and understanding.
Update on maternity provision during Covid-19
Home Births
We have re-instated our home birth service following its suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
If you would like to give birth at home, please let your community midwife know. Your midwife will need to complete a ‘Covid-19 Home Birth Risk Assessment’ with you before agreeing your home birth. Your health and safety, and that of your family and our members of staff is our main priority. Home births will only be provided if your home is assessed to be a safe environment for midwives to provide care.
Your midwife will also provide you with written information containing instructions to ensure risk is kept to a minimum. We respectfully ask you to ensure you comply with these requests to allow us to keep you and our members of staff safe. Our midwives have the right to decline a home birth if the home environment is unsuitable, if they suspect that anyone within the home might be suffering from Covid-19, or if the requests made to reduce risks are not complied with.
At the moment we are unable to offer home births to women who had not previously booked one, because we are still experiencing some staffing shortages – although we hope to be able to provide this service again soon. If you had not previously booked a home birth and would now like one, please let your community midwife know. Your midwife will discuss this with you as soon as possible.
Eastbourne Midwifery Unit (EMU)
Eastbourne Midwifery Unit (EMU) will re-open at 8.00am on Monday 6th July following a temporary closure while the organisation responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are taking appropriate precautions to keep women, their families and our members of staff safe and our midwives will be in touch to talk to families about the changes we have made and what actions they might need to take. Any family planning for a birth at EMU will need to complete a risk assessment with their midwife to make sure that it is the right option for them.
Conquest Hospital Maternity Unit
We are fortunate to have a completely separate entrance to our maternity unit at Conquest Hospital, which means women don’t need to walk through the main hospital to reach the unit. We have set up extra midwife-led facilities both on and away from our delivery suite, and have received very positive feedback about their care from mothers who had to change their birth plans. Whenever possible our home birth and EMU midwives have cared for women who were previously planning births in these settings.
Coronavirus infection and pregnancy
Please see information on the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists website:
About our services
We care for women and their babies, during pregnancy, labour, birth and up until one month after birth.
Our midwives provide midwifery-led care in a number of settings, including local General Practitioner (GP) surgeries, children’s centres and within our hospitals at:
Over 6,000 outpatient appointments take place each year within the department and our hospitals are teaching hospitals so we involve students with all aspects of care.
Your experience of pregnancy and birth really matters to us, and we will do all we can to provide the best possible care for you, your partner and your baby, within the hospital, community and home settings.
We are committed to personalised care and will try to meet your wishes so far as it is safely possible.
These pages provide general information about our services and include video tours of Conquest Hospital Maternity Unit and Eastbourne Midwifery Unit which guide you through your pregnancy journey.
Accordion
Obstetric and Gynaecology Consultants and SAS doctors
Ms Russul Abdul Ghani
Associate Specialist - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Mr David Chui
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Mr Elhami Ebeid
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Mr Hosam El Halwagy
Consultant - Urogynaecologist and Urogynaecology Unit Lead
Dr Bahei Mahmoud Zaki Elbahei Desouki
Specialty Doctor - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Dr Nidhal Jabbur
Associate Specialist - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Miss Nirmala Murthy
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Ms Mini Nair
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Mr Dexter Pascall
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Dr Nicole Roberts
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Dr Hossein Shafie-Pour
Specialty Doctor - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Dr Padma Sriram
Specialty Doctor - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Dr Nalini Subashchandran
Specialty Doctor - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Dr Angeli Thallon
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Miss Basirat Towobola
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Uro-gynae)
Mr Waleed Yousef
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Mr Jamal Zaidi
Consultant - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Dr Seema Zulfikar
Specialty Doctor - Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Conquest Hospital
Eastbourne DGH
Accordion
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has launched a national campaign aimed at raising awareness of the CQC amongst women who are pregnant, planning to have a baby, are looking to become pregnant, or have recently used maternity services in England. They want more women to be aware that if they’re pregnant and choosing where to have a baby, they should be able to choose the right birth plan, and that CQC resources – inspection reports and rating, are there to help make that decision.
Consumer research the CQC recently commissioned has highlighted low awareness among new mothers of their inspection reports and the information they can provide on the quality of care provided by maternity services across the country.
The CQC objectives are to encourage more women to:
- Use the free, independent CQC inspection reports to compare maternity services near them
- If they’ve recently had a baby to share their experiences with CQC, whether good or bad
More information about the CQC campaign can be found on their web page: