Expectant mothers are angry after learning they cannot have their baby at Wycombe Hospital this summer, with one mum-to-be fearing she will have to “give birth at the side of the road” if she is forced to make the 15 mile journey to Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust announced last week the centre, which sees around 20 pregnant women a month, will suspend its birthing service between July 25 and October 31 due to a staffing crisis, and women wanting to have their babies there will be “offered other alternatives”.

These include home births with midwife support, Aylesbury Birth Centre, which offers the same maternity-led service as Wycombe, and the consultant-led labour ward at Stoke Mandeville.

Karen Proctor, 32, who lives in High Wycombe with husband Mark and two children, was due to give birth at Wycombe Birthing Centre in a few weeks, when she read about the suspension in the BFP.

She said: “This has made me feel really angry. I found out from the Bucks Free Press last week – I have been told absolutely nothing since I read about it.

“It’s such a huge thing to shut it. No-one has discussed any options with me. The thought of being in labour for 45 minutes while driving to Stoke Mandeville is terrifying and making me anxious.

“I don’t want to end up giving birth on the side of a road.”

She told the BFP she had given birth to her first two children there and was “really upset” that she wouldn’t be able to have her third one there too, describing the service as “absolutely amazing”.

The Trust said the measure was “temporary” for three months in order to recruit new midwives and enable staff from the birth centre to be deployed to cover “unfilled shifts” across other parts of the service.

But Karen, who is due on August 13, said it would be “unsurprising” if the suspension was “testing the waters” and the service would be eventually pulled.

She said: “I hope I’m wrong. They’ve already taken away A&E and consultant led maternity services – it seems to be another thing that’s been snatched away from us.

“We have been given no choice but to go to Stoke Mandeville. The choice of a woman being able to give birth where she wants has been taken away from the women in High Wycombe and Marlow.”

Stacey Lawrie, 25, from High Wycombe, gave birth to son Marley last week at the birthing centre and said she “absolutely loved” her experience there.

She had originally decided to have her baby at Aylesbury Birthing Centre but changed her mind after going into labour as her contractions were coming quickly.

She said: “I don’t think people give Wycombe Birthing Centre enough credit. My midwife was amazing – they had the best care in there.

“I found the news of the closure really sad, especially for an area like High Wycombe where there are so many people.

“Stoke is already under a lot of pressure. I feel they could have come up with a better solution than suspending the service completely. I wonder if they will even be able to recruit enough staff in time to open when they say they will.”

Speaking about maternity services at the hospital, she said it would be “much better” if a consultant-led service was reinstated at Wycombe Hospital as it would encourage more women to go there.

She said: “It is stressful enough being pregnant – but when you know can’t go to your nearest hospital if you go into labour, it’s even worse.”

Antenatal and outpatient postnatal care, which receives around 700 visits from mothers and babies every month, will continue to be provided at the centre.

Bucks Healthcare NHS Trust response:

“The midwife-led service offered at Wycombe Birth Centre offers a home from home birthing environment for women expecting an uncomplicated delivery and is very much valued by mothers who give birth there.

We are proud to be able to offer expectant mothers across the county the full range of birthing options – home birth, midwife-led birth centres and a consultant-led labour ward – which are in line with national recommendations.

There has been a midwife-led only birth centre at Wycombe Hospital for nearly ten years.

This followed a decision, taken after a full public consultation, that Stoke Mandeville Hospital offered the appropriate level of specialist staffing support and infrastructure which is needed to support a consultant-led service.

This includes immediate access for mothers and their babies, should they need it, to services such as neonatal specialist care, emergency theatres, and a fully equipped spinal unit.

We have made every effort to individually contact women who were planning to give birth at Wycombe Birth Centre to make them aware of the temporary changes.

We would encourage Mrs Proctor to contact her community midwife to discuss the full range of birthing options available to her.

There have been a number of vacancies in recent months which had not been anticipated, including the resignation of a small number of midwives who left at the same time in July.

Whilst we normally plan for a 9 per cent turnover of midwives, this significantly increased to 15 per cent over a short period of time.

We have implemented a number of measures to maintain a safe service during this time, including staff working additional shifts, using agency staff and cancelling study leave.

However, the unanticipated midwife vacancies meant we were faced with the situation of around 40 unfilled shifts a month.

We are in the process of recruiting 24 new midwives and are confident that we will be able to offer the option again for women to give birth at Wycombe Birth Centre by November 1 as planned.

The decision to temporarily transfer the care of women planning to give birth at Wycombe was taken after a full assessment and was deemed to be the safest and least disruptive option for all the women who benefit from our maternity services.

We recognise that this may be disappointing to those women and we apologise sincerely.

It is important to stress that women will continue to have the full support of their community midwives, and will have ongoing access to Wycombe Birth Centre for their antenatal and outpatient postnatal care.”