Hospital's secret garden

Jane Elliott
BBC News Online health staff

The foliage is silk and real

A wonderful new horticultural delight has opened in a rather unusual location - the 7th floor of a London Hospital.

With its mixture of silk and real foliage St Thomas' garden provides a welcome respite from the usual starched hospital environment.

Designed to give mothers-to-be a quiet and tranquil place for early labour, it is already proving extremely popular.

Tina Barlow, who recently gave birth to son Alfie at the hospital, used the garden during the stages of early labour and said she found it a welcome relief.

Relaxing

"Within just five to 10 minutes of going into the garden I felt the quality of my contractions had changed for the better.

"I stayed in the garden for about an hour and a half and loved the atmosphere. The view across London was fantastic and the plants made it really relaxing.

The women who have visited us find it fantastic Belinda Ackerman

"One of the nice things about the room was that it was somewhere in the hospital that you could go with your partner and somewhere that he could sit down.

"It was a hot day and the environment in the garden was very cool. I really found that it helped me."

The garden provides a relaxing atmosphere

Consultant midwife Belinda Ackerman said that even though the garden had only been open a short while it was already very popular with maternity patients.

"Giving birth is one of the biggest life changes any woman will ever experience.

"Early active labour is an important time for women to bond with their birth partner and for midwives to give support.

"This room is designed to provide a quiet space to relax in before the final stages of labour begin.

"It also means that any pregnant women using the room are able to give each other help and encouragement.

Views

"The women can then spend the early phase walking up and down and going into the garden and looking at the fantastic views of the Thames and Big Ben.

"There are also bars around the walls of the room for the women to hold onto while they are having their contractions.

"It is a very light room and very calming. The women who have visited us find it fantastic. It is just a lovely, lovely space for them."

Women can walk round the garden

Garden designer Michelle Brandon, from florist and landscape designers Woodhams, said the hospital garden had been the first project of its type they had ever attempted. She said they had been delighted with the results.

"It was quite new to us, we had never done an indoor garden like this before. And as well as creating the garden we also had to make sure it conformed to all the hospital regulations as well.

"It was a lot of hard work, but we are very pleased with it. "