You can contact the Bridgewater Midwifery Service for Widnes & Runcorn by calling 0151 495 5079.
Coronavirus information for all women using Halton Midwifery Service
We would like to provide you with as much information as possible in relation to the current coronavirus epidemic in the UK. This information applies if you are pregnant or are having postnatal care for you and your baby within our service.
We are working to provide as much of our normal care as possible and continually reviewing our services in line with our current staffing levels, changes to GP services and latest national guidance.
Symptoms
Please do not attend any appointments if you or a family member has any of the coronavirus symptoms. The most common symptoms are a recent onset of:
- a high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back.
- a new, continuous cough – this means you’ve started coughing repeatedly.
- loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.
For a full list of symptoms visit the nhs.uk website.
If you have these symptoms and have a planned appointment in clinic or at home, please contact the service on 0151 495 5079 or contact your named midwifery team prior to the appointment. We can then advise on how to manage your symptoms and ensure your care is coordinated safely.
If you or your family do not have any of these symptoms please attend your appointment as usual.
New measures to protect you
As part of the measures taken to protect you and our staff during the coronavirus epidemic, we are asking that you attend your appointment alone, wherever possible. If this is not possible, then please attend with one other person only. Children should not be brought to appointments in clinical areas during this time.
During home visits by the midwife we are asking that only residents of the household are present. These precautions are in an effort to reduce contacts and prevent transmission of the virus.
All our ‘You and Your Baby’ and ‘Earlybird’ sessions have been cancelled until further notice.
From 26 May 2020 we will be reinstating our home birth service following a short suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pregnant women have been advised to social distance as a precautionary measure information on what social distancing means and how to do it is available on the gov.uk website.
Information on the coronavirus infection and pregnancy is available from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists website under the title Information for pregnant women and their families.
Thank you for your support during this time and please follow the public health advice to keep yourself healthy during your pregnancy.
Leaflets
Coronavirus: Planning your birth
Coronavirus: Parent information for newborn babies leaflet
Illness in newborn babies leaflet
Help us keep your maternity services open
Coronavirus: Looking after yourself and your baby in pregnancy
Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm. An out of hours on call service is provided for all pregnant and newly delivered women; your midwife will give you the contact number at your ante-natal assessment.
- Self referral to Self referral to Bridgewater Midwifery Service / Self midwifery referral form (email this to bchft.midwiferygpcomms@nhs.net)
- Early bird
- Breastfeeding
- Teenage pregnancy
- Pregnancy education sessions
- Home birth
How can people access the service?
Women can self refer, be referred from other services or the GP.
Where is the service offered?
Based at Widnes Health Care Resource Centre and from GP surgeries on Runcorn.
Contact details
Midwifery Services
Health Care Resource Centre
Oaks Place
Widnes
Cheshire
WA8 7GD
Telephone: 0151 495 5079
Textphone: 18001 0151 495 5079
Midwifery Screening Team
Bridgewater have a small, dedicated Screening Team to ensure all parents are offered antenatal scans and blood tests where appropriate in pregnancy and when your baby is born.
You will be sent the leaflet, ‘Screening tests for you and your baby’ as soon as you let us know you are pregnant and before the early bird session we offer.
Find out more about screening tests on the NHS website and on the Gov.uk website.
Information and resources
Leaflets
The Pregnancy Book
Your complete guide to a healthy pregnancy, labour and childbirth, the first weeks with your new baby.
- Breast Feeding letter – Ante natal pack (PDF – 92KB)
- E-Coli leaflet (390KB)
- Equanox Entonox Cylinders leaflet (PDF – 174KB)
- Group B Streptococcus (GBS) in pregnancy and newborn babies
- Halton Domestic Abuse Service leaflet (weblink)
- Healthy Start Vitamins (PDF – 650KB)
- How to reduce the risk of getting an infection after having a baby leaflet (162KB)
- Information about Home Birth (PDF – 246KB)
- Information about Raised Body Mass Index in Pregnancy leaflet (PDF – 174KB)
- Information about Jaundice in newborn babies leaflet (PDF 176KB)
- Online pregnancy and early years magazine for parents in Halton (788KB)
- Physical activity for pregnant women (web link)
- Please stop drinking mummy (1.15MB)
- Pregnancy and postnatal mental wellbeing leaflet (859KB)
- Screening tests for you and your baby (PDF – 4.1MB)
- Skin on skin contact (web link)
- Smoking leaflet – Mum to be? We can help you quit smoking (PDF – 312KB)
- Smoking leaflet – Your stop smoking journey (PDF – 169KB)
- Smokefree Cars (1.73MB)
- Window blind safety (web link)
- Whooping cough (pertussis) vaccination in pregnancy information (web link)
- Whooping cough and pregnancy (NHS web link)
- Feeling your baby move is a sign that they are well (weblink)
- Uterine Artery Doppler Ultrasound Measurement Leaflet (PDF – 179KB)
- Your dog and your baby (web link)
Halton Midwifery Service annual questionnaire
View or download our Halton Midwifery Service annual results for 2017 (PDF – 235KB)
Useful websites
CATCH is a free health app for parents and carers of children aged 0-5. The app empowers you with the information necessary to decide when your child needs medical treatment or when self-care is more appropriate.
Start4Life – off to the best start information leaflet about feeding your baby
Lullaby Trust – Safer Sleep for Babies a Guide for Parents – 0808 802 6869
Maternity exemption certificate application process
NHS Choices Pregnancy and Baby Guide
UK National Screening Committee