The local hospital

It's been brought to my attention over the last week that there are proposals afoot to close the obstetric unit at my local hospital, the Horton in Banbury, and replace it with a midwife led delivery unit there, as well as removing the current paediatric services from the hospital. 

When it comes to my delivery I plan to give birth at the Horton. There are many reasons I've made this decision and I will share them now.

Firstly safety. I am a low risk pregnancy (yay!) but I am also a doctor. As part of my GP training I have attended difficult births as the neonatal doctor, tending to the sick newborn, and as the obstetric doctor, assisting in emergency c-sections and instrumental deliveries. I know from first-hand experience that in even the most low risk of pregnancies things can, and unfortunately sometimes do, go wrong. The consequences of this can be life-altering and life threatening and situations during labour can change in an instant. While I am not a natural pessimist, in fact I would say I am a realist, I would never choose to deliver my baby anywhere that medical assistance wasn't immediately available. If the obstetric team were to be removed from my local hospital I wouldn't countenance delivering there. If I were to encounter a complication (obviously something I hope to avoid) I would be reliant upon an ambulance transfer to another unit - possibly the John Radcliffe in Oxford, a hospital 30 miles away from my home in a very congested location and one which I have previously had cause to complain about as a patient - hardly ideal. During the wait or the transfer either I or my baby could lose our lives. It's unlikely but it's not impossible. For this reason above all others I will be throwing my ever increasing weight behind the campaign to keep the current safe services in place. I also have the option of a midwife led unit about 20 miles away but as they acknowledge their transfer rates for first time mums are between 36- 45% and they have fewer pain relief options available I wouldn't consider this as a first option. 

Secondly convenience - when I go into labour it will be very handy to have a three mile, ten minute car journey, before I'm at the labour ward. Not just then but when I have a young child, knowing that there are local services available to care for them if needed when sick or to attend clinic appointments would be a huge reassurance. The logistics of getting to the two other nearest hospitals, Warwick or Oxford would be very difficult. A town the size of banbury, over 100000 people and growing fast, needs more services rather than fewer and to leave such a wast geographic area as north Oxfordshire without obstetric and paediatric cover would be both dangerous and short-sighted.