WA's first Family Birth Centre celebrates silver anniversary

• Providing home-like maternity care for 25 years
• Almost 7,000 babies born at Family Birth Centre  

For 25 years, the Family Birth Centre, at King Edward Memorial Hospital, has provided Western Australian women with the opportunity to have their children in a home-like setting.

The Centre, the first of its kind when it opened in 1992, was designed for women with low-risk pregnancies, and their families, who prefer to give birth to their babies in a home-like setting with the ability to be transferred to higher level care if required.

The Centre is staffed by 28 midwives, who are on-call 24 hours a day, to care for women during their early pregnancy, birth, and postnatal period.

In recent years, the Centre moved to a Midwifery Group Practice model of care, enabling women to have their chosen midwife with them throughout their pregnancy and postnatal care, which has proven better outcomes and satisfaction from mothers. 

A 2016 survey revealed more than 95 per cent of women at the Centre were confident in the care they received, felt supported and listened to and reassured knowing emergency back-up was close at-hand. 

Comments attributed to Health Minister Roger Cook:

"Since 1992, the Family Birth Centre, located at King Edward Memorial Hospital, has provided a home-like maternity care setting for almost 7,000 births.

"The Centre certainly lives up to the State Government's health priority of 'putting patients first' by placing the needs of expectant mothers, and their families, first.

"The photographs and messages from happy families that adorn these walls are testament to that.

"The McGowan Government has an election commitment to establish another family birth centre at Fiona Stanley Hospital for women in the southern suburbs."

Minister's office - 6552 6500