Te Whatu Ora - Lakes Maternity Services provides regular maternity clinics for women during pregnancy, as well as birthing units and an inpatient unit for women during and after labour/birth.

The Rotorua Hospital Birthing Unit provides primary and secondary inpatient services for women during labour and birth and urgent antenatal assessments. There are eight labour and birthing rooms, four of which have birthing pools. Within the birthing unit, we also have a bereavement suite (the Nga Awhi Rito Room), for women with a pregnancy over 20 weeks who have had a bereavement during their pregnancy/birth.

The Perinatal Inpatient Unit comprises 10 single rooms for women who need to stay as maternity inpatients at Rotorua Hospital. The unit predominately admits women postnatally, but some mothers may need to be admitted antenatally. In the Perinatal Inpatient Unit, we can provide support to mothers who need extra assistance to establish breastfeeding. A support person, mostly the father of the baby is also able to stay on the ward, to assist the mother overnight with care of the baby.  

Rotorua Hospital also has four mothercraft rooms available to women who may have a baby in Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU).

The Taupō Maternity Unit includes a primary birthing facility for those with low-risk pregnancies. Women with complications will be transferred to birth at Rotorua.

Maternity Outpatient Clinics are held in Rotorua, Taupō and Tūrangi where women are seen by an obstetrician, when referred by an LMC.

At Rotorua Hospital, a midwifery-led Day Assessment Unit is available on certain days of the week. Women may be referred to this outpatient service, from the maternity clinics, if they require additional monitoring and treatment between their antenatal clinic visits.

Where to find us: see the Rotorua Hospital and Taupō Hospital map here.

What are Maternity Services?

Maternity is concerned with the care of women and babies throughout pregnancy (antenatal), labour and the first six weeks after birth (postnatal). For low risk pregnancies, where there are no complications, the provider of care (Lead Maternity Carer) is normally a midwife who is working in the community and funded by the Ministry of Health.

Click here to find an LMC.

If a pregnancy or birth becomes higher risk, then an obstetrician may be involved in your care.