Maternity campaigners question 'birthing centre' report

If the units at Bridgnorth, Oswestry, and Ludlow revert to birthing centres as suggested in Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust’s (SATH)'s recent operational plan, new mothers will miss out on a range of services, Liz Grayston, who has led campaigning for the Oswestry unit has said.

A long-expected recommendation that the units become birthing centres, no longer open 24 hours a day, went before SATH's governing board last week.

But the report has come after hundreds of people marched in Oswestry and Bridgnorth last month in support of the units, and Mrs Grayston said campaigners in all three affected towns were alarmed by the idea.

She said: “This is the first time I have seen this in black and white, that this is what they are planning to do. Now we start shouting.

“No matter what they say, it is a downgrade because they are reducing the hours you can stay in the unit and, actually, the range of services on offer."

She said at present the units were not simply for giving birth, but also used by mothers who needed recovery time and support afterwards – both after giving birth there and also transferring there from the busy Shrewsbury and Telford consultant units.

"There will be a real loss of support for mothers trying to breastfeed and those who need additional emotional support, as well as the practical support currently offered. This is in fact awful news," she said.

She said simply making decisions on the dry figures did not take into account the different nature of the catchment areas of the more rural towns from Shrewsbury and Telford – and the change would worsen the situation for the rural units by discouraging women from choosing to give birth locally, further putting the midwife-led units' long term future at risk.

The SaTH report says numbers at the units are low, with only one third of those who choose to give birth in a midwife-led unit able to do so.

But Mrs Grayston pointed out that those figures also included Shrewsbury and Telford, which have midwife-led units as as well as consultant-led services.

She said in fact the rural units retained a higher proportion of women, with 40 per cent of ladies that choose to give birth in Oswestry going on to do so, compared to only 25 per cent in the Shrewsbury and Telford units.

The SaTH report, however, insists that the number of staff at the small town units "is not in line with activity" at them, and said internal workshops concluded they should move to "a birthing centre model, where the midwife follows the woman, rather than being based in the unit 24/7."

A decision will be made on the units later this year after a review being led by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group.