Photo by David Anstiss, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Over recent years, various new Midwife-led Birthing Units have been opened, up and down the country. Sometimes these are stand-alone units, but often they are located in a Hospital and are designed to deal primarily with the more straightforward births.
In order to make them feel more inviting and less ‘clinical’ and intimidating, the rooms in question do NOT have a Hospital bed, but are equipped with a wall bed (usually a double) which can be pivoted away (fully made up and ready for immediate use), into a specially designed wall unit, which houses not just the bed, but also provides storage space and conceals various medical services, such as gas and vacuum lines, etc.
When the wall unit is closed, the room resembles a ‘hotel’ room, with various birthing aids, rather than a Hospital room. If/when the bed is needed, it can be deployed, effortlessly and in literally seconds and, being a double, will accommodate both Mum and her partner, in comfort.
Our counterbalanced ‘NEAT-A-WARD’® Patient Wallbed was developed specially for this application and whilst the bedframe is essentially the same as our high performance ‘WISKAWAY’® Visitor Wallbed bedframes, the ‘NEAT-A-WARD’® is designed to be floor-fixed and to be housed in an extended wall unit (usually Architect designed) with independent doors. The Double will comfortably cope with loads of up to 400kg (singles with up to 200Kg) and comes with a 10 year bedframe guarantee, but will last far longer.
In order to provide the best possible access for nursing, the height off the ground, when deployed, can be specified (on ordering) to suit customer requirements, by varying the manufactured height of the front and back legs. These beds additionally incorporate a handy back rest, which deploys and retracts automatically, as the bed is lowered and raised, allowing the occupant(s) to sit up in bed and read, watch TV, etc.
In 2011 we supplied and installed our double ‘NEAT-A-WARD’® Patient Wallbeds in the new midwife-led ‘Birth Place’ at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent, illustrated here (below). The architect designed cabinetwork was supplied by the main contractor.
Other ‘NEAT-A-WARD’® Patient Wallbed customers for this application include Wythenshawe Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, the Royal Preston Hospital, Chorley Hospital, Wallsall Hospital, the Sandwell Midwife-led Birthing Centre and the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge.
The Medway Maritime Hospital is also a longstanding ‘GLIDEAWAY’® Parents’ Guestbed customer, for their Children’s Ward.
