Whether you are pregnant and thinking about where to have your baby or someone thinking about joining our team, I am delighted that you have chosen to visit our website.
I hope you find the information useful but if there is something you would like to know and you cannot find the information here, why not give Rebecca, my secretary, a call (01932 722903) or email at
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and she will be able to put you in touch with the right person to talk to (please note emails to this mailbox are checked Mon-Thurs 0800-1630 only).
For queries regarding ultrasound appointments please call 01932 722665
If you need any urgent clinical advice please call:
24hr midwifery lead triage - 01932 722835
If you are less than 12 weeks pregnant, you can also call:
Early Pregnancy Unit – 01932 722662
(EPU opening hours are Mon-Fri 0900-1300)
Sandra Houston
Head of Midwifery and Gynae Nursing
Amenity Rooms on Joan Booker (Postnatal) Ward
Private room with en suite facilities
£200 per night
Upgraded amenity room with bathroom facilities shared with one other room
£130 per night
Single amenity room sharing ward facilities
£85 per night
Payment for your amenity room is required upon discharge from the ward.
Please call us on:
Joan Booker Ward – 01932 722659
Midwifery Triage – 01932 722835
Labour Ward – 01932 722399
Breastfeeding Clinics and Support
For advice and support with breastfeeding please come along to one of our clinics:
Topaz Suite Ashford Hospital, TW15 3AA
01784 884181
Mondays 12.30pm-2pm (drop in)
BIBS (Breast is Best Support Group) & St Peter’s Hospital at Sayes Court Children’s Centre,
Addlestone, KT15 1NB
01932 851502
Tuesdays 10am-12pm (drop in)
Baby Café @ Clarendon Children’s Centre
Ashford, TW15 2HZ
01784 424759
Thursdays 12.30pm-2pm (please phone first)
Baby café @ YPOD
Woking, GU21 6JD
01483 757160
Mondays 10am-12pm
Grovelands Sure Start Centre Walton, KT12 2EQ
01932 229313
Thursdays 9.45am-11am (please phone first)
New unit offers more choice for local women
The Trust Board at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals has approved plans to build a new Midwifery Led Unit, which will be located in Abbey Wing at St Peter’s Hospital alongside the existing maternity facilities.
The new unit will provide a ‘home from home’ environment for women who have normal and uncomplicated pregnancies and want to give birth in a less clinical setting. Sandra Houston, Head of Midwifery, said: “This is absolutely fantastic news for local women and our midwives can’t wait to see the new unit built. It’s all about offering a choice of birthing experience to women and providing different facilities to enable that choice.” ... read more
Surge of new midwives join the Trust
Over the last six months almost 20 new midwives have joined the team at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals. The new recruits will work in different areas of maternity care – in the community looking after women during their pregnancy and supporting those who choose a homebirth, in the antenatal clinics and on the labour ward at St Peter’s, and on the postnatal ward ‘Joan Booker’ for women and their babies after the birth ... read more
A Bumper Crop of Twins
With over four thousand babies born a year, the maternity department at St Peter’s Hospital is always busy. However, between the 9th and 10th January the team was particularly hectic with the unusual arrival of four sets of twins!
Sandra Houston, who joined St Peter’s as Head of Midwifery in July 2011, said: “We see many sets of twins and even triplets delivered every year, but the arrival of four sets of twins in a 24 hour period is extraordinary. In fact, even our longer serving members of staff can’t recall it ever happening before.” ... read more
New Special Care Unit for St. Peter’s Hospital
St. Peter’s Hospital is proud to announce a new 9 bed Special Care Unit for mothers and their babies. The new SCU is replacing the old 6 bed transitional care unit and will be part of, and managed by, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It will be staffed by neonatal nurses and led by Sister Therese Nursey ... read more
Maternity Unit Awarded Highest Standard for Patient Safety
Maternity Services at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust, based at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, were recently awarded the top standard for patient safety protocols by the NHS Litigation Authority.
Associate Director of Maternity Services at the Trust, Eileen Nolan, comments: “We are absolutely delighted with this achievement which reflects the huge improvements we have made to our maternity services over the past few years. We are the first unit in the country to achieve Level 3 since the standards were revised and the bar raised earlier this year ... read more
Philosophy of Maternity Care
Excellent maternity care must be comprehensive and flexible to respond to the clinical and social needs of the family. We understand that every woman, baby and family is unique and will have different needs depending on their own circumstances. As such we want to work in partnership to help the woman and her partner achieve the experience that is right for them
Offering Choice over where and how to give birth will lead to a more flexible, responsive and accessible maternity service. We will ensure that the woman and her partner have the correct information to help them reach the choice and decisions that are right for them. When circumstances mean that the choice has to be changed, we will ensure there is enough information for them to understand the reasons for this.
We will ensure that the care we give follows "best practice" and is research based. We will aim to develop an effective maternity service which meets the needs of the local population working within the national service framework. We will audit the care given and our practices and update them in the light of new evidence
We will treat everyone with kindness, understanding and dignity and will respect the privacy, religious and cultural beliefs of families. We will endeavour to provide effective, high quality communication between healthcare professionals, women and their family's which will empower them to become active partners in decision making in their overall care. Interpreting services will be provided for women where English is not their first language.
Following feedback from parents and staff, we saw that the ”turn up and tour” of the maternity unit at the weekend was not working well and was causing significant disruption for those new mums who had had their baby and for the staff trying to care for them. We were also told it was not working for those who turned up to tour and who were left feeling disappointed if they didn’t see everything they had hoped to see.
Instead, the team have produced a short DVD covering all the key areas in the maternity unit. Ask one of the team for a copy at your next visit.
You can also view the 10 minute video on YouTube by clicking here.
About the Unit
