Shropshire Star

More than 1,000 march through Ludlow in support of maternity unit

More than 1,000 people marched through Ludlow amid fears that the town could lose its maternity unit.

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Children, parents, grandparents and supporters of the unit gathered on Castle Square in their hundreds before walking through the streets to the town's hospital in Gravel Hill.

Carrying banners and posters, blowing whistles and chanting slogans, the protesters said that losing the Ludlow maternity unit would be dreadful for young families.

Fears have been raised because no details have been announced about how rural maternity services such as those at Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Oswestry are to be funded beyond April 2017 when the current funding contract ends.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the Ludlow midwife-led unit, insists there are no plans to close it permanently.

However the financial recovery plan for SaTH lists one of the possible changes as converting three midwife led units to birthing centres.

A wide cross-section of people marched through Ludlow

These would be open during the day but closed overnight with a midwife on call to open the unit if a woman was in labour.

Early this year the Ludlow unit was temporarily closed last week because of concerns over the ageing building it was based in. It was reopened in a more modern part of the hospital.

Emma Summers, at the march with four-year-old Ruby, said the A49 to Shrewsbury or onto Telford was a dreadful road particularly for a woman in labour.

Sarah Engels took part with husband, Gersom and five-year-old Aliyah.

"She was born in Shrewsbury but I came back to Ludlow after the birth. My parents-in-law came over from Belguim to see their new granddaughter and staff at Ludlow were able to let them see her late at night, which would not have happened in a larger unit."

Youngsters joined in the protest

Victoria Taylor-Duxbury is expecting her first child at the weekend and said she was very grateful that she was able to go to a maternity unit in Ludlow.

"I have had my pre-natal appointments here - I can't imagine what it would have been like to go to Telford," she said.

She and her husband, Richard, moved to Ludlow from London about six months ago. They marched with Victoria's mother, Heather Milne-Taylor, from Lancashire.

"It is an eye-opener being in a rural county and seeing how services operate," she said.

Six-year-old Charlie was born at Ludlow Hospital as was his nine-year-old brother Finlay. Their mother, Lynne Mantle said it was vital that the town kept its maternity unit.

"I was quite poorly after I had them and the midwives were wonderful, they were with me every step of the way. Because there was a unit near to home I was able to be discharged knowing that I was close to the midwives if anything went wrong," she said.

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