GIVING birth can be one of most wonderful experiences any woman ever experiences, and now mums-to-be in Worcestershire have even more choice over where they welcome their bundles of joy.

The new Meadow Birth Centre at Worcestershire Royal Hospital is opening this week and offers mums with straightforward, low-risk pregnancies a comfortable and welcoming environment in which to give birth.

The midwife-led centre has four en-suite delivery rooms, three with birthing pools, along with fold-down beds for when mums or their partners need to stay the night or relax a little after giving birth.

Divisional director of nursing and midwifery at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs the Royal – Patti Payne said she and her team at the midwife-led centre expected to deliver about 500 babies – between one and two a day – in its first year, and twice that in the second.

“We wanted to create a home away from home where women can feel relaxed,” she said.

“We want to be able to offer women the chance of giving birth in a midwife-led facility.

“Before this they didn’t have that chance.

“There’s clear evidence that for low risk pregnancies it’s very safe for to give birth in a midwife-led centre.”

Work on the centre – which is next to the hospital’s delivery suite in case something goes wrong during the birth – got underway in February 2014 when the trust was handed £497,000 from the Department of Health.

With an additional £103,000 ploughed into the project from the trust, building work began in earnest in November last year in an area of the hospital previously used for triage.

Each room in the centre – which is staffed by 14 experienced midwives and seven maternity support workers – has a privacy screen blocking the birthing pool from view as well as other homely touches including coloured lights and quotations on the wall from writers such as A.A. Milne.

Matron for maternity Rachel Carter said the idea was to allow women to give birth and go back home as soon as possible.

“It’ll be quite a short stay, but if they give birth at 1am they might want to stay a bit,” she said.

“We have facilities to give them a bit of bonding time.

“The idea isn’t that they stay for two weeks – we want them to go home as quickly as possible because that’s the best place for them.”

Ami Kokoska – whose mum Karen is deputy head of nursing and midwifery at the trust – is expecting a baby girl in June and hopes to be able to be able to be one of the first handful of mums to give birth in the centre.

“It’s beautiful,” she said.

“I’d love to be able to come here.”

A number of open days have been held in recent weeks for mums-to-be and others. Worcester MP Robin Walker recently visited the centre with his counterparts in Mid-Worcestershire Sir Peter Luff and the Wyre Forest Mark Garnier and said he was “blown away”.

The team at the centre are raising money for extra including furnishings and equipment. To help with fundraising, visit justgiving.com/MeadowBirthCentre