Babies to be born in Kirklees hospitals for first time in two years as Dewsbury's Bronte Birth Centre re-opens

The facility opened on April 1 for the first time since May 2022, when it was forced to close its doors due to troubles with recruiting and retaining staff.

The prior closure of Huddersfield Birth Centre in 2020 meant that, aside from home births, no babies had been born in Kirklees for almost two years.

The Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) and Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been working in partnership to bring a Kirklees birth centre back into operation.

However, while things may be looking up in Dewsbury, difficulties are still being experienced in Huddersfield.

The Huddersfield centre was “temporarily suspended” in March 2020 when the pandemic took hold but the site has been unable to re-open as staffing pressures have lingered on.

At a meeting in November 2023, councillors heard that the earliest a facility could re-open in Huddersfield was August this year, but that this hinges on successful recruitment.

Speaking at last month’s meeting of the Calderdale and Kirklees joint health overview and scrutiny committee, Coun Andrew Cooper (Newsome, Greens) wanted to hear when Huddersfield’s birth centre would be back in operation but was told that the site will remain “temporarily suspended”, with no indication as to when it may re-open.

A CHFT boss said: “I think when we look at the growth of our workforce over the last 12 months, we’ve actually only increased it by around five full-time equivalent midwives, despite the large recruitment we’ve had, so I think it’s challenging to predict exactly when our workforce will grow and we will review it each time we have an intake of staff.”

The meeting was assured that the Dewsbury centre was there to serve women across the borough.

While Huddersfield Birth Centre remains closed, CHFT offers midwife-led care at Calderdale Royal Hospital.

Another option in the vicinity is Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.

The parents of the late Jo Cox, Jean and Gordon Leadbeater, and her sister Kim Leadbeater, now the Batley and Spen MP, officially opened the Bronte Birth Centre at Dewsbury and District Hospital in October 2016.