Maternity Service

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Updated 3 June 2025

Our vision for our maternity and neonatal services

To deliver safe, personalised, and high-quality maternity and neonatal care that empowers families, reduces inequality, and ensures every baby gets the best start in life.

To support our team to provide family centred care, whilst working in high performing teams, within a well led organisation which nurtures a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and breaks down organisational and professional boundaries to improve safety, quality and inclusion.

Information about our maternity service

Our maternity service provides the care for pregnant women and their families in the west of the county. We have approximately 1,600 births a year. Approximately 7% of our babies are born at home. We have six large birthing rooms, all en-suite. Postnatal provision includes both single en-suite rooms and multi occupancy bays.

We also have a separate area for women planning a low-risk birth called The Cove which has two dedicated rooms with birthing pools which can be occupied until discharge.

Most of our postnatal accommodation is large single rooms, fully en-suite, and if you are in a single room, your partner is welcome to stay overnight. We can provide a recliner for your partner but would recommend they bring in a pillow and a blanket or cover of some kind. However, if all the single rooms are occupied then postnatal accommodation is in small multi-occupancy wards. In this case, unfortunately partners cannot stay overnight.

In addition to the Maternity Unit and The Cove, the service provides antenatal and postnatal community care across the catchment area for DCH. We have a dedicated out of area team who care for visitors coming to Dorset, such as tourists or women who wish to birth at DCH or live outside of the catchment area e.g. East Dorset and Somerset.

We have achieved Stage 2 UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative Accreditation.

We are working towards the National Bereavement Care Pathway for pregnancy and baby loss and our service is committed to continuous improvement in bereavement care for those affected by pregnancy or baby loss. More information is available on the NBC Pathway website.

Contact numbers and further information

The reception phone number for the Maternity Unit is 01305 254267.

Dorset's Maternity Advice Line can be reached on 0300 369 0388 for all of your maternity questions or concerns.

You can find more information about maternity options and services in Dorset, and advice about pregnancy and giving birth, on the Maternity Matters Dorset website.

Take a virtual tour of our unit

This interactive tool provides parents with the chance to virtually walk around the unit to understand what to expect. It explains how the unit will look, feel and sound, as well as providing further information on the equipment and facilities.

Take the virtual tour of the unit here.

Specialist services

We have many specialist services, some led by midwives and some by consultant obstetricians:

Smoking cessation team
Multi professional diabetic team
Consultant-led postnatal clinic
Specialist multiple pregnancy team
Specialist service for women at risk of premature birth
The Cygnet Homebirth team
A team of midwives called The Cranberry Team, in the north of the county providing a continuity of carer model for pregnant women
Access to a multi-professional service for women struggling with their mental health
Specialist team for teenage parents
A midwife-led service to support women planning birth after a previous caesarean
Breathing and relaxation classes
Baby massage classes
Tongue-tie assessment and clinic (frenulotomy)
Specialist bereavement team
24-hour access to an epidural
A dedicated maternity theatre
Antenatal screening service with some onsite fetal medicine provision
A Special Care Baby Unit that cares for babies from 32 weeks' gestation. The unit has four rooms for parents to be resident with their baby.

Our consultant team

We have eight consultant obstetricians who lead on complex and high risk pregnancies:

Audrey Ryan
Francis Afadapa
Mamdouh Shoukrey
Beena Dandawate
Mohamed Siddig
Hani Shamseldin
Suguna Balasundaram
Andrew Mukherjee

Your midwife will be the lead professional for your pregnancy unless you have other complicating factors. In which case, an obstetric consultant will be your lead professional. Ideally you will see the same midwife for the majority of your pregnancy care.

Advice for service users and families in Somerset

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust had to make the difficult decision to temporarily close the Special Care Baby Unit at Yeovil Hospital from 5pm on Monday, 19 May 2025, which means they are also unable to safely provide care during labour and birth at the Yeovil Maternity Unit for an initial period of six months.

Dorset County Hospital is working closely with neighbouring trusts to support women to decide where their care is transferred to from Yeovil. DCH maternity and neonatal team will continue to provide our usual high-quality services to everyone we care for.

Information and advice is available on the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust website. This is being added to regularly so please check for updates.

Take a virtual tour of the Dorset County Hospital unit here.

Maternity management team

Jo Hartley, Director of Midwifery and Neonatal Services - jo.hartley@dchft.nhs.uk

Lindsey Burningham, Deputy Director of Midwifery and Neonatal Services - lindsey.burningham@dchft.nhs.uk

Selina Willett, Personal Assistant - selina.willett@dchft.nhs.uk

Matrons
Nichola Coliandris, Intrapartum, Screening and High-Risk Pregnancy Matron - nichola.coliandris@dchft.nhs.uk

Tara Pointer-Putt, Postnatal Care, Community and Public Health Matron - tara.pointer-putt@dchft.nhs.uk

Débora Pascoal Horta, Neonatal Matron - debora.pascoalhorta@dchft.nhs.uk