York NHS Foundation Trust – Birthing Pool Rooms
Following the Department of Health’s release of funding to improve the birthing environments in over 100 hospitals, GSSArchitecture worked with York Hospital to produce a scheme that has created two dedicated birthing pool rooms and three further pain relief pools in adjacent LDRP rooms. This has significantly improved the patient experience by generating a calm welcoming environment for new mothers.
The GSSArchitecture team worked closely with the maternity staff and specialist suppliers to develop a design that was practical within the constraints of the existing building footprint. As a result, a special one-off pool was developed for the sole purpose of this project. It was dubbed ‘The York’ and is featured in the adjacent images.
The construction work all took place around the live working environment of the Maternity Department, and, as such, a lot of time and consideration was given to planning the phasing and site set-up. GSSArchitecture delivered a full design service to the satisfaction of the maternity team, and the entire project was taken from inception to completion within 6 months, finishing on time and on budget to meet the terms of the funding.



