AN OXFORD maternity unit will celebrate its 10th anniversary next month and is inviting children who were born there and their families to return and join in the celebrations.

The Oxford Spires midwifery-led unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital was opened in 2008 and has since seen almost 5,000 babies delivered there.

On Saturday, September 1, Spires staff will hold a coffee morning including a birthday cake at the John Radcliffe Hospital’s Women’s Centre to mark the milestone.

Pregnant women will also be invited to take a tour of the facility, including a visit to the water birth rooms that will take place during the day as part of the event.

Director of midwifery at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) Rosalie Wright, said: “The midwifery-led unit has been a great addition to the Women’s Centre and is very popular with pregnant women.

“It combines the comfort of a relaxed and homely environment in the care of our skilled midwives with the reassurance of the ability to be very quickly transferred to the main delivery suite if things do not go quite to plan.

“This event aims to celebrate the success of the unit over the last decade where more than 7,500 babies have been born.

“Therefore, I ask families who had their children at the Spires to come along and share their memories.”

Based on Level 7 of the Women’s Centre, the Spires opened in September 2008 to provide a midwifery-led unit to people living in Oxford and the surrounding area and it is one of the five facilities of this sort Oxford University Hospitals runs in the county.

The others are the Horton Midwifery-led Unit, the Cotswold Birth Centre in Chipping Norton, the Wallingford Maternity and Birthing Centre and the Wantage Maternity Unit.

The Spires’ 10th birthday coffee morning will take place in the roof garden on Level 7 of the Women’s Centre from 10.30am to 1pm on September 1.

Coffee, tea, fruit and birthday cake will be offered to those attending.

Places for the 10th anniversary celebrations are limited and must be booked in advance.

Tickets can be booked online by visiting eventbrite.com/e/spires-10th-birthday-tickets-48914782431

Anyone wishing to take part in the tour of the Spires facility should call 01865 221666 to pre-arrange.

In July it was revealed that access to the amenity rooms on Level 7 would be closed over the summer because of a shortage of midwives.

Additional beds have since been opened on Levels 5 and 6 of the Women’s Centre which OUH said was a ‘more effective way of staffing the unit’.