A birthing unit for Wanaka would be at least two years away, even if the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) decides in favour of one.

In the meantime, the SDHB is committed to providing facilities for emergency births and telemedicine, and paying rent for the local midwives’ rooms in Wanaka, SDHB primary and population health general manager Mary Cleary Lyons told the Wanaka App.

Mary’s comments follow a maternity services consultation meeting in Wanaka last week, attended by about 35 people.

The SDHB chose to hold a second meeting here after a “huge” response from Wanaka people to an earlier meeting on its options paper on where primary maternity facilities should be located in Central Otago/Wanaka.

Participants at last week’s meeting shared personal stories about birthing experiences, and Mary told the Wanaka App the SDHB’s challenge now is to “go away and reflect on everything we’ve heard”.

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She confirmed the SDHB is still looking at all four options: a new primary birthing unit in Cromwell; a new primary birthing unit in Clyde; or two options which include a new birthing unit in Wanaka.

Any decision on a maternal and child hub has been “parked” by the SDHB until a decision is made on the location of a primary birthing unit. PHOTO: RNZ

A primary birthing unit is equipped for supporting healthy women with no medical complications through labour, birth, and inpatient postnatal care. Primary maternity facilities, such as the Charlotte Jean Maternity Hospital in Alexandra, have onsite or on-call midwifery support in addition to the woman’s chosen midwife.

Mary said the SDHB will work on identifying a preferred option during the next two weeks. A draft paper will go to the SDHB board in October, then a final paper in November.

If a new birthing unit is decided for Wanaka, it would take “up to two years” for it to be in place, she said.

“Once a decision is made we have to do the business case for the Treasury - I’m not anticipating that being a problem,” she said, adding the SDHB would have to identify a site, go through the resource consent process, and put a proposal out to tender.

In the meantime, she said, the SDHB has “parked” work on a maternal and child hub for Wanaka which was meant to have opened at the beginning of this year, until a decision is made on a birthing unit.

A maternal and child hub is a non-birthing unit with resources to support women and babies’ antenatal and postnatal care. Such hubs are not intended as a planned place for birth, but have basic midwifery equipment and are accessible to lead maternity care midwives in case of emergency.

The SDHB said in June it was reconsidering the site of the planned maternal and child hub however the Gordon Road property leased by the SDHB is still an option, Mary said.

“It has been a really long and difficult process,” she acknowledged, but said she believes maternity services in Wanaka have improved because there are now more midwives here, and they are “more supported”.

The SDHB is now planning how to manage multiple different scenarios for women in Wanaka and elsewhere in the region, she said.

If the SDHB decides against a birthing unit in Wanaka, it remains committed to ensuring a fit-for-purpose maternal and child hub will be put in place in Wanaka, Mary said. Such facilities are temporarily operating from the Wanaka Lakes Medical Centre.