A new facility at a Sunshine Coast hospital will provide specialist care for mothers experiencing mental health challenges after childbirth.
The purpose-built $27 million eight-bed Mother and Baby Unit at Nambour General Hospital will provide short to medium-term acute mental health care for mums while allowing them to remain with their babies in a safe and therapeutic environment.
The Sunshine Coast is one of six locations receiving additional perinatal mental health services under the state government’s statewide expansion.
Member for Nicklin Marty Hunt said the new unit, which could open in early 2028, would help local families.
“Keeping mums and babies close to partners, children, grandparents and their support networks while they receive specialist care can make an enormous difference,” he said.
“This $27 million investment at Nambour General Hospital is about giving local families confidence that when they need specialised mental health support, high-quality care will be available closer to home.”
The unit will be staffed by clinicians, allied health therapists, paediatricians, maternity nurses and midwives.
Sunshine Coast mum Deneale Davies was excited to hear a unit would be built in the region, after she benefited from one on the Gold Coast.
Her daughter Scottie was born in April last year, at Cairns Hospital, near where her family was living at the time.
Five days postpartum, with no sleep since giving birth, her GP instantly recognised she was struggling.
“It’s not what I expected for myself,” she said.
“I never had anxiety or depression: I was fit and healthy.”
She had two stays in the Cairns Hospital, where she received mental health support, but being away from Scottie was difficult. She was offered a bed in a mother and baby mental health unit on the Gold Coast, where Scottie was able to stay with her, while she continued to receive tailored support.
She spent two months at Gold Coast Health’s Lavendar House, before returning home to Cairns, where she continued to use the strategies and supports from her stay to gradually rebuild her independence.
By the start of this year, Ms Davies said she was no longer feeling anxious and was able to live her regular life, and she and her family moved to the Sunshine Coast at the end of last year.
“Mother and baby units have been amazing for our family,” she said.
“The unit made the world of a difference, especially with mine and Scottie’s bond, and then also with my mental health.
“I was already at a low and, had I not had Scottie there with me after going through birth, carrying her for nine months, I think that would have been detrimental even further to my mental health, and so I do think having her with me made the biggest difference.
“The Lavender Unit really, truly was the biggest blessing in actually my whole family’s life.”
