In May of 2008, the new Mater Mothers’ Hospital will open in Brisbane. It will be a 249 bed and cot facility that will care for more than 10,000 babies each year in a “state of the art” medical environment .

The Mater Mothers’ Hospital, is Queensland’s major maternity hospital and one of the busiest maternity hospitals in Australia. One in six Queenslanders are born there.

The Mater believes that, for the majority of people, the new Mothers’ Hospital will be a building of ‘wellness’ rather than sickness; where the preparation for birth, the event of birth and post birth activities are all natural, healthy processes.

As a major tertiary level hospital the Mater cares for mothers and babies who require the most advanced specialist care, making a balance of wellness and highly specialised health care essential.

The Mater Mothers’ Hospital treats women experiencing severe pregnancy complications and newborn infants diagnosed with complex illnesses and disorders from all over Queensland, northern New South Wales and the Pacific region.

Every year about 8,000 babies are born at Mater Mothers' Hospital. While most have a healthy start to life, over 1,600 premature and seriously ill babies spend anywhere from a couple of days to a few months in the Intensive and Special Care Nurseries each year.

Premature and very low birth weight infants require specialist care to give them the very best chance of a healthy life. The nurseries provide a life-line to babies born as young as 24-weeks gestation and weighing as little as 500 grams who require round-the-clock intensive specialist care.

The hospital’s specialised team of doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals work around the clock to provide the very best care to sick and preterm babies and their families.

Each year thousands of expectant mothers and their unborn babies rely on the Mater Mothers’ Centre for Maternal Fetal Medicine for detailed assessment and/or lifesaving treatment. Over 1,000 women from all over Queensland and northern New South Wales are referred to the Centre each year with pregnancy complications for specialist advice and treatment.

In addition to managing high-risk pregnancies and life-threatening complications, the Centre undertakes research to improve pregnancy outcomes and develop services to provide early and accurate detection and management of pregnancy complications.

For more information visit: http://www.mater.org.au/