Mothers urged to keep fighting for Shropshire maternity units

Liz Grayson has been fighting alongside other campaigners to prevent a permanent closures of rural maternity-led units across the county.

Plans will go out to consultation later this year, which will see women only able to give birth in centres in Shrewsbury and Telford and not in Oswestry as they also can at the moment.

A number of closures have been enforced over the past year in Oswestry, the latest coming last week and set to run until later this month.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, which runs the maternity services, has listed reasons in the past as a lack of available midwives and mothers choosing to have their babies elsewhere.

Protests rallies and marches have taken place, and now Mrs Grayson has urged women not to give up and keep fighting for mothers to have local births.

She said: "Just because it has gone quiet in recent months does not mean the fight is over.

"We are still fighting this and we don't want local mothers to give up.

"The trust might not say it but local mothers want to give birth, the reason they can't is because the centre in Oswestry has been subject to temporary closures.

"We've gained support from national groups who have seen how much of a controversial move it would be to close rural maternity units.

"We must not give up. Women need to get out and have their say when the consultation comes along."

Under the new proposals, women will no longer be able to give birth at the rural midwife-led units in Oswestry, Ludlow and Bridgnorth

Instead they will be able to give birth at the consultant-led unit at Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, at the hospital’s neighbouring midwife-led unit at PRH, at a free-standing midwife-led unit at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or at home.

Under the plans, a series of maternity ‘hubs’ would also be created to support women before and after birth.