Madison Garratt and Luca Rapp, who were transferred from Kaleeya Hospital as part of the transition of services in December last year, were greeted with open arms and smiles from the staff who cared for them 12 months ago.
Since opening, the maternity service has helped to deliver more than 2100 babies, including 14 sets of twins.
Nurse unit manager Alison Martin helped set up the neonates service, which cares for sick and pre-term babies.
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READ NOW“Neonatal nurses are really quite rare and there was only one other major unit in WA (King Edward Memorial Hospital) at the time, so we actually sourced nurses from seven countries around the world,” she said.
“It has been great to listen to ways that things are done differently around the world and incorporate some of those into the way we operate at Fiona Stanley.”
Mrs Martin said that up to December 2, the neonatal service had handled 625 admissions, 28 sets of twins and three sets of triplets.
“We have babies sometimes for just three or four hours and other times they are with us for eight to 10 weeks.
“The best part of the job is seeing them go home and then return for outpatient appointments as healthy and happy babies after being really unwell in some cases.”
Mrs Martin said the neonatal unit had the latest equipment available and did not need to move babies off-site for MRIs or other imaging.
Fiona Stanley Hospital’s maternity service provides care for moderate- and high-risk pregnancies and births for mothers in the South Metropolitan Health Service and designated rural catchment areas, as well as low-risk births for women who live in the local catchment area.