Teenager's plight shows need to keep birthing unit open

Emma Johnson (19) was about to give birth when she was told the Royal Sussex County Hospital's maternity unit was full. Staff there contacted The Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and were informed that, although the maternity unit there was busy, it would take her.

The Brighton teenager had just reached the Princess Royal unit, with her partner Ed Prior (23), when her baby arrived and was born on the floor, with midwives helping her.

The young mother had first experienced pains two days earlier but had been told when she first contacted the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton that it was too soon to go in. She suddenly went into labour in the early hours of Tuesday morning last week.

Campaigners fighting to save the birthing unit at the Princess Royal said the young mother's experience showed just how important it was to keep the service there. The Princess Royal is set to lose its consultant-led maternity service as part of a shake of hospitals across West Sussex, leaving just post and antenatal clinics.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette June 25