A NEW partnership between midwives and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service will provide much needed support to expectant mums in Lymm.

Thanks to the arrangement, midwives from Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will offer new antenatal clinics at Safety Central for mums-to-be in the area.

This is the first stage of what is hoped will be a ‘exciting’ partnership, aiming to provide vital and wider help for new parents using state-of-the-art resources at Cheshire Fire’s interactive life-skills centre.

Community midwife clinics will run every Friday between 9am and 5pm from September 11, and appointments will be offered to expectant mums via the WHH Integrated Community Midwifery Team.

Kimberley Salmon-Jamieson, chief nurse at WHH, said: “We are delighted to be offering this additional clinic in Lymm for mums-to-be, but the use of the Safety Central is only the first step in an exciting and far reaching partnership.

“Over the coming months, we will be working with Safety Central to offer wider information sessions to expectant parents, including hypnobirthing classes and a unique opportunity for our families to participate in the Safety Central experience around home and fire safety.”

This was echoed by integrated community manager Ailsa Gaskill-Jones, who is also lead for continuity of care at Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust.

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She commented: “It is really great to be able to work with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service in this way, and the unique support we can provide from Safety Central is just one part of a wider project to ensure continuity of midwifery care to pregnant women across the Warrington area.

“We are very excited to be able to offer this gold standard of care with the benefits it will have for all our families.”

Safety Central is funded by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and located next to Lymm Fire Station in Cliff Lane.

It is set out as an indoor village with urban, countryside and home zones, with different hazards recreated in each as an interactive way of educating children, young people and community groups on ways to stay safe.

Safety Central manager Mark Shone added: “We are delighted to be working with our NHS colleagues to provide a base for one of their vital community clinics.

“This is the beginning of an exciting partnership which will ultimately enable us to provide accident prevention education to a key audience – parents of children up to five years old.”

For more information on the WHH Maternity Service, visit whh.nhs.uk/services/maternity