Almost two years after Wanaka’s maternal and child hub was announced by the Southern District Health Board (SDHB), the new hub was opened today (Monday (May 3).

The Wanaka Maternity Hub, Te Whare Kōhaka o Wānaka, located at 61 Brownston Street (previously Aspects Day Spa), will house the lead maternity care (LMC) midwives, tele-health and rural secondary care clinics.

The space is also equipped for responding to maternity emergencies and unplanned rapid births. 

“This is a fantastic milestone and we are really delighted to have this wonderful space for women and babies in the Wanaka area,” SDHB director of midwifery Heather LaDell said.

And local midwives are excited to have a larger space in which to work, midwife Morgan Weathington told the Wanaka App.

The opening week of Te Whare Kōhaka o Wānaka aligns with International Day of the Midwife (May 5): a day to advocate for investment in quality midwifery care around the world to improve sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in the process. 

The new hub is now open at 61 Brownston Street. PHOTO: Wanaka App

This year’s theme is ‘Follow the Data: Invest in Midwives’. 

“We are fortunate in Wanaka to have dedicated midwives, primary care colleagues, proactive families and a supportive DHB all working towards excellence in rural maternity care,” Morgan said.

“Until now, the interim hub has been located at Wanaka Lakes Health Centre, and we thank them for their support as we transition into a new space.” 

The SDHB took a lease on a property in Gordon Road on June 4, 2019 and, prior to Covid-19, had undertaken design and engineering work for plans to renovate the space as a maternity hub.

In the meantime, the SDHB paid the rental of a consulting room at the Wanaka Lakes Health Centre for midwives, but it was not fit for purpose as a hub, midwife Deb Harvey said.

The new space was identified and decided on with the support of the local midwives and has improved space to provide primary maternity care by the LMC midwives, including three clinic spaces, an urgent treatment space, a central meeting area for telehealth, reception area, and emergency equipment.

“Having found this more suitable location on Brownston St, we were able to reassign the lease of the Gordon Rd premises,” Heather said.

The hub will not be a designated birth space or offer overnight postnatal care. Wanaka residents can currently give birth or stay postnatally at home, or at Charlotte Jean Maternity (Alexandra), Lakes District Hospital (Queenstown), Dunedin Public Hospital or Southland Hospital in Invercargill. 

Meanwhile the SDHB continues to evaluate the best location for Central Otago primary birthing units, and a decision is expected later this year.

A primary birthing unit (such as Charlotte Jean) is equipped for supporting healthy women with no medical complications through labour, birth, and in-patient postnatal care.

“Wanaka families and midwives remain hopeful for a primary birthing unit in Wanaka,” Morgan said.

Heather said in recent months the SDHB has undertaken further consultation with midwives across the district, and undertaken further analysis on possible models of care for the district.

“A paper outlining options for the future will be presented to the Southern District Health Board at its June meeting,” she said. “This paper was initially intended to be presented at an earlier meeting, however the timeframe has been extended to enable more detailed analysis to be included.”

Once the paper has been endorsed by the board, the next steps to developing the agreed primary birthing services in the area can begin, she said.