About The Grange

The Grange is a standalone maternity unit in Petersfield, Hampshire.  It offers midwife-led birthing and postnatal services, as well as ante- and post-natal advice, to parents in Petersfield and the surrounding area.

Before its closure in 2005, about 150 babies per year were born at The Grange, and many more mothers transfer to the unit for a short stay after giving birth in local hospitals.

The unit was staffed by midwives and health care support workers, with support from the community midwives.

The Grange offers a more relaxed and homely environment than is possible in hospital, and research indicates that birth centres offer many advantages over consultant-led hospital units for mothers with healthy pregnancies who are expected to have straightforward deliveries.

These advantages include more 'normal' births, less intervention, fewer caesareans, lower postnatal depression rates, and increased chance of successful breastfeeding. Click here to find out more about the advantages of birth centres.

In addition, births at midwife-led units are cheaper for the NHS than those that happen in consultant-led units.

The National Service Framework for Maternity Services supports the development and promotion of midwife-led care to all women who have been appropriately assessed. In addition, the Government's Birth Choices project has been running in the Portsmouth and Southampton area over the last two years.

Following on from that project, all 3 of Portsmouth's peripheral maternity units (The Grange, Blackbrook in Fareham, and Blake Ward at Gosport War Memorial Hospital) were relaunched and renamed as Birth Centres. This happened in November 2004 as part of an NHS initiative to support and promote these units, and to encourage increased use.

The Birth Choice UK website contains lots of information about the different options for delivery and care, as well as statistics on local maternity units.

Click here to visit the Birth Choice UK website