WOMEN who gave birth at the Horton General Hospital's midwife-led unit (MLU) have praised staff but expressed fears for the future.

Between October and the end of February there were 73 births under the care of midwives and support staff at the 'temporarily' downgraded site.

A further 15 women were whisked to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford for consultant-led care, and a further four immediately after birth.

The Horton was downgraded in October as Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust did not have enough doctors in post to safely run consultant-led services.

Emma Hyatt, of Kings Sutton, faced a two-week wait to find out if her son Ziggy was brain-damaged after he did not breathe for 20 minutes.

The 41-year-old gave birth at about 3am on Tuesday, February 21 and her son was resuscitated there but could not immediately be taken to the JR.

She said: "I was told they had room for him at the JR but not for me. We stayed until around 1pm when a decision was made that we needed to go to the special care baby unit, so my son and I went in the ambulance."

The couple has since received the all-clear but Mrs Hyatt said the downgrade poses a 'real risk'. Three women gave birth in the 12 hours she was there.

It emerged that a dedicated 24-hour ambulance currently parked at the Horton to take women in labour to the JR might not be retained past this year.

Pregnant women assessed as 'low-risk' can use the Horton MLU but the ambulance is there to take those who develop complications during birth to the JR.

Dr Kiren Collison, a deputy locality lead for Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said women could be assessed as 'low-risk' but never 'no-risk'.

She said: "About a third will be 'low-risk' and 20 per cent will be considered 'high-risk'. There is 50 per cent who we don't know the risk and you have to keep assessing."

Nursing assistant Carley Evans, 32, had given birth twice at the Horton before and was assessed as 'low-risk' throughout her third pregnancy.

Daughter Sienna Rose was born at 6.15pm on Sunday, February 13 but Miss Evans was taken straight to theatre at the JR as the placenta stayed attached to the uterus, causing her to lose a lot of blood. She said: "If they still had doctors at the Horton my experience wouldn't have been so traumatic. "

Emma Barlow, 25, from Banbury, gave birth to her first child Elias at 1.15am on Thursday, October 20 without a hitch, in the birthing pool at the Horton.

She said: "It was wonderful, a really nice experience. They had aromatherapy oils infusing in the room and mood lighting; it was relaxed and everything went smoothly.

"I had to go in the next day because I was having trouble breastfeeding, and they set me up with a nice little room and spoke to me. The aftercare was brilliant."

But she added: "My mum had an emergency C-section at the Horton with my brother and if she had had to transfer she would have died."

Dr Veronica Miller, clinical director for women’s services at OUH, said: “The National Maternity Review found that midwife led units are safer places for women with low risk pregnancies to give birth than doctor led units, as the interventions are fewer. The outcomes for babies are the same.

"The trust has been running three other midwifery led units in Oxfordshire for some time now and the outcomes and transfer rates for all our units are good and within national standards."