Image: Alexander Mayes Photography
The Westmead Hospital Mother and Baby Unit provides holistic, multidisciplinary specialist health care that is parent and infant-centred, family and carer inclusive, and culturally sensitive. This new purpose-built unit is located at Redbank House on the Westmead Hospital campus with eight inpatient beds.
The unit has been designed to allow mothers suffering from acute mental health issues to be admitted to a safe and comfortable inpatient unit along with their newborns. This model prioritises the mother’s needs, enabling access to support and care while also providing the opportunity for bonds between mother and infant to form while treatment occurs.
Within the unit, there are communal areas including lounges, dining, kitchen and courtyard areas to accommodate multiple families. Therapeutic spaces include group/activity rooms, play areas, baby care rooms and a retreat. Although it is a secure unit, the design provides mothers with autonomy and freedom of movement within the secure perimeter.
Steensen Varming provided mechanical and electrical engineering and specialist lighting design services on this project.