BOLTON midwives will be leading the way in a one of a kind maternity unit for Greater Manchester.

The Bolton NHS Foundation Trust's community team has been chosen to deliver maternity services from the fully refurbished unit in Salford later this year.

Consultant midwife from Bolton, Catherine Owens will lead for the new service which will welcome expectant mums from across Bolton, Salford and Wigan.

She said: "We want women and the local community to be at the centre of this new and exciting development.

"Where a woman chooses to have her baby is so important to her and her family. As a Pioneer site for Better Births, a national programme that facilitates improved choices for women during pregnancy, we can now exclusively offer women wider choice and improved birthing facilities within Greater Manchester."

Salford Birth Centre, which currently operates from Salford Royal Hospital, will close at the end of September as part of wider plans for the hospital to develop its stroke and high-risk surgery facilities.

Ingleside, a former residential home in Swinton, was chosen to be the new home of maternity services.

A tender process by NHS Salford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) saw Bolton NHS Foundation Trust selected to provide the services, with its team having already provided maternity care in the Salford area for a number of years.

The unit is for women in Bolton, Salford and Wigan and includes a home-from-home environment for women who have been identified as having a low-risk pregnancy and are not expected to require support from an obstetric doctor.

Once opened, it is hoped the unit – which includes four birthing suites – will become a community hub to women and their families for the whole area, offering antenatal and postnatal clinics and classes, sessions on hypnobirthing, infant feeding support and a range of complementary therapies.

The building is owned by Salford City Council and will be refurbished by them over the coming months with the help of a crowdfunding appeal to include specialist mood lighting, high definition projectors displaying natural images and sounds, and the facility to play patient's own music.

It will be available for women to give birth 24 hours a day, all year round and will be open to the community from 8.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday.

Bolton will be the only trust in Greater Manchester to provide options ranging from home birth, the free-standing new Salford unit or maternity suites at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Nicky Etchells, acting head of midwifery at Bolton, added: "We’re delighted to have been appointed to provide these services in Salford, and look forward to extending our midwifery services further into the Salford community."