Modern, functional, welcoming … Appearances are in no way deceiving concerning the new Bel-Air maternity hospital. Finally, new, not so much after all: inaugurated on February 19, 2021, the Woman-Mother-Child Hospital is already two years old. And it is an understatement to say that the “little one” is growing up quickly.
Its first year of existence had already resulted in a balance sheet of 2,266 births, nearly 300 deliveries more than in the aging premises of the old maternity ward. In 2022, this growth is confirmed: “We recorded 2,418 births”, counts Marie-France Oliéric. Let be a level comparable to what the head of the obstetrics gynecology department knew when he arrived in Thionville in 2009.
“I think I can say that it is a great success”
From the baby boom to the baby blues… Subsequently, this activity encountered a long erosion, the sector’s patients opting more willingly for the hotel comfort of the Mercy hospital, or even the Luxembourg hospital centre. The rebirth of Thionville could only pass through reconstruction. A finding established in 2007 by Dr. Eric Welter.
Great craftsman of this resurrection, the head of the Woman-Mother-Child pole allows himself this general satisfaction: “I think I can say that it is a great success. Very few errors were made, both in the positioning of services and in access and quality of care. We owe this almost faultless to joint work, carried out by the various colleges of the hospital, upstream of the construction. »
Heading for 2,700 newborns?
“Do you feel better in these new premises? The questioning would leave Noémie Wagner, coordinating midwife, almost speechless. The memory of the old structure, out of breath with its collective showers upstairs and its double bedrooms, seems very distant to him today: “Here, the conditions are optimal. »
The establishment has 48 rooms, most of which are individual. A “birth apartment”, giving the illusion of experiencing childbirth outside the walls of the hospital, completes the offer. One asset among many others. To boost its birth rate, the (more so) new maternity has a space of conviviality reserved for future mothers. The site is also multiplying avenues for development: in its viewfinder, the Very High Quality Environmental Health (THQSE) label, an objective at the origin of the imminent establishment of so-called “Nesting” workshops: “They will be aimed at young parents concerned about choosing, for their children, equipment and care products that are good for the environment,” explains Noémie Wagner.
Maternity is also turning to alternative medicines that are particularly popular with new generations: “Acupuncture, sophrology, hypnosis… For some people, it works very well”, observes Marie-France Oliéric. Which recalls, between two corridors, that this maternity is sized for “2,700 births…” See you in a year?
