The new South Lakes Birth Centre is truly an exemplar, with new ideas and layouts derived directly from staff and service-user feedback.

The South Lakes Birth Centre project involved a major extension to the existing hospital to provide a new maternity unit, delivered under the P21+ Framework. All works were undertaken in a live and working hospital environment adjacent to working wards.

The unit is split over two floors and includes: 14 en-suite birthing rooms, two dedicated theatres, a special four cot baby care unit, two transitional care beds, maternity assessment and bereavement suite.

The Trust embarked on extensive consultation with the community, patients and staff to identify their ideas and needs. The initial design from Day Architectural was explored in detail with them; adapted live using Day’s software, as different ideas were discussed.