Commissioned as part of an overall programme of improvement and rationalisation of the North-West London NHS Trust’s maternity services, this antenatal clinic and birthing unit, located within Central Middlesex Hospital’s compound, was scheduled to be built in advance of a major PFI development scheme for the entire campus.

The Brent Birth Centre was to be the first NHS facility to have been built as a free-standing unit, although there were already a few running in the private sector.

The Trust's aim was to create a low-key building providing a safe and relaxed environment for women choosing a non-clinical delivery as their birth plan, whether as a result of personal choice, or due to different cultural approaches to childbirth, following the tradition of giving birth at home.

The Centre was therefore due to be a halfway house between home and the hospital, a place where women could give birth in a relaxed domestic environment, attended by skilled midwives.The Centre is welcoming and calming. It is a building of two parts, one relating to the preparation for birth (ante-natal clinics, consulting room and a space for pre and post-birth training) centred around a spacious and comfortable waiting room – the other relating to the birth itself, wrapped around a private, landscaped, walled garden.

The six birthing rooms are reached via an elegant corridor, naturally lit by vaulted roof lights and intended to encourage women in labour to walk up and down. They are spacious, light and airy, with high ceilings, abundant natural light, wide double beds and en suite shower rooms.

The project has been recognised as a flagship NHS building and is still being used as an important case study for research into successful medical architecture and birth environments.

AWARDS

Winner - Civic Trust Award for the Brent Birth Centre 2006

Shortlisted - The Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award for the Brent Birth Centre 2005