THOUGHT LEADERSHIP PROJECT
Perspectives in Public Health
Ekkist Managing Director, Olga Turner Baker, contributed an academic article to a specialist issue of Perspectives in Public Health, titled “The role of the built environment in maternity settings: improving outcomes for mothers, infants and staff through maternity unit design”.
The article explored the relationship between building design and health outcomes. The key issue highlighted was that a comprehensive review of the design of maternity units’ impact on maternal, infant and staff health and well-being was lacking in academic literature and planning guidelines, despite the potential for such research and recommendations to significantly impact health outcomes.
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Environmental aspects such as lighting, acoustics, overheating, biophilic design and air quality are often studied in isolation in hospital or maternal environments, thereby limiting the potential to take a holistic approach and generate comprehensive learnings and recommendations.
Current National Health Service (NHS) design guidelines for maternity care facilities are focussed on inclusivity, security, infection control and storage, with only limited discussion on the importance of design to support well-being.
The built environment has a clear role to play in maternal, infant and staff well-being. Current guidance must be updated to consider maternity unit design more comprehensively and set clearer, more stringent benchmarks in relation to environmental factors such as air quality, electric lighting, acoustics and temperatures to support better outcomes.