Call for births to resume at Crowborough unit

Campaigners are calling for births to resume at an East Sussex unit after services were suspended in October.

Births at the Crowborough Birthing Centre were suspended because of staffing pressures, while antenatal and postnatal services continued as normal at the unit based in the town's War Memorial Hospital.

Genevieve Gresset from the Friends of Crowborough Hospital told BBC Radio Sussex the change had had a "traumatic impact on local women".

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, which runs the unit, said: "The trust and ICBs (integrated care boards) are meeting with partners in May to confirm next steps."

Annabel Gould was due to give birth at the centre in December, but had to make the journey to Pembury, Kent, almost an hour away.

She said she found out births were suspended "with little to no warning", describing it as a "massive, anxiety-fuelling time for us".

Eleanor Ross, due to give birth in 10 weeks, says she hopes to give birth at the centre if it reopens in time.

"It's 10 minutes from my home," she said.

She said she had been told a home birth was "not necessarily going to happen because the midwives are so hard-pushed".

She said: "There have been cases of women giving birth at home alone, which I don't want, and then Pembury hospital is a half hour to 40-minute drive from my house depending on traffic."

Gresset said: "We've had women turning up here, pregnant and in labour - heavily in labour - and seeing that the unit was closed."

She said she spoke to the trust, which said it would involve Friends of Crowborough Hospital in discussions about the centre.

A statement issued by NHS Kent and Medway and NHS Surrey and Sussex Integrated Care Boards said: "We are both committed to ensuring maternity services are safe, high‑quality, and available for our communities.

"We are meeting with the hospital trust this month to discuss the current position and consider next steps together."

The statement said their priority was to "work collaboratively with the trust, following due process, to ensure sustainable and compassionate maternity care now and in the future."

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