You may have seen in the press that Heatherwood Birthing Unit is currently closed. We've spoken to the team at Wexham and they've confirmed that this is nothing to do with the consultation about closing Heatherwood, but is purely because of long-term staff sick leave, which means that they don't have enough midwives for both Heatherwood and Wexham. And because of the nature of long-term sickness, they don't know when the unit will re-open.

This is not the first time this has happened: in summer 2008, the unit was closed for a few months. And it re-opened with the same type of backdrop, as there have been consultations going on about the closure of the hospital almost as long as most of us can remember.

If you're due to give birth at Heatherwood but haven't heard from them yet, I'll try to summarise the key points:

• Don't panic: the most important thing is that you're going to have a baby: although a good birth experience is important, where you have the baby is far less important than having a healthy baby.
• Having attended ante-natal classes and developed your birth plan, you're well equipped to have the birth experience that you want, regardless of the location. The decision to close Heatherwood is to maintain a higher midwife/birth ratio, which should improve your birth experience, if anything.
• Assuming the centre hasn't re-opened by your due date, you have 4 options: a home birth or a hospital birth at one of Wexham Park, Frimley Park and the Royal Berkshire. It would be worth doing a tour of one or more of the hospitals and/or speaking to your midwife about a home birth. Both Frimley and the Royal Berks have been alerted that they may see more people coming their way.
• If you're in any doubt, please speak to your midwife: the nearer you are to your due date, the more often you'll see her, call the team at Wexham on 01753 634474 or look at the press-release about the temporary closure on the website http://www.heatherwoodandwexham.nhs.uk/news/heatherwood-hospital-materni...