NEW mothers will be encouraged to leave hospital a few hours after they have given birth at Durham's new £90m hospital.

But NHS bosses said yesterday that any mother who wished to stay longer after giving birth in the new delivery rooms would be able to do so.

North Durham Health Care NHS Trust has initiated a pilot scheme in the Stanley area to look at how midwives can serve pregnant woman and new mothers better.

Margaret Best, director of nursing and quality enhancement at Dryburn Hospital, Durham City, said that 16 labour, delivery, recovery and post-delivery rooms would be part of the new hospital.

She said it was becoming standard practice for new mothers to leave hospital after a few hours as a preferable way to treat mothers.

She said: "Giving birth is a normal, lovely event and our new delivery rooms will be family-friendly rooms.

"They will have nice furnishings and be much nicer and better able to serve all the needs of the mother in one place. In the past, women have been treated like a parcel.

"New mothers might stay only a few hours, but if they feel they need longer they will get longer. Equally, mothers might want to go home quickly, but midwives might say: 'Hold on, that was a hard delivery, you need to stay'."

The trial midwifery scheme in Stanley is partly designed to examine ways that midwives can improve one-to-one relationships with women. The scheme is to be implemented in the Chester-le-Street and Consett areas.

About 2,100 babies are born at Dryburn Hospital every year. The new University Hospital North Durham, at the Dryburn site, will open in April.