Last updated at 08:42, Tuesday, 08 January 2013

PARENTS shared their powerful stories as they threw their weight behind a passionate campaign to protect Barrow’s maternity services.

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Within two hours of launching their campaign on Saturday, volunteers for the Thousand Voices campaign had already videoed around 100 people speaking out against the potential downgrading of the Furness General Hospital unit.

The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which runs FGH, is reviewing all its services, and will launch a public consultation this year.

Volunteers took to Barrow’s Dalton Road on Saturday to ask people to back their battle against any such move.

Stephanie and Chris Powell of Croftlands, Ulverston, stopped to say their piece while out shopping with their children.

Mrs Powell, 33, had their youngest son, Dexter, now 23 months, at FGH.

She said: “He was a caesarean because of his positioning, and when they got in there, he wasn’t breathing.

“The FGH maternity unit saved our baby’s life, there’s no question in our minds about that.”

Jennifer Thomas also had to have a caesarean with her now four-year-old son, Samuel Keel, born weighing 10lb 8oz.

The 23-year-old, of James Street West, Askam, said: “It was an emergency one, because we weren’t getting anywhere.

I’d been in labour so long, no way would I have been up for going to Lancaster.”

No stranger to a long and difficult labour, mum-of-one, Dani Petrova, was in the town centre especially to take part in the recording.

She told her story clutching a picture of her newborn baby, published in the Evening Mail in September 2008.

Accompanied by daughter Gabrielle, now four, the 34-year-old, of Drake Street, Barrow, said: “I needed a doctor because I had such a long labour – it started at 4am on September 10 and she wasn’t born until the 11th.

“By 2.42am I was in such pain, and they said I was struggling, so they called in the doctor. He tried to get her out using suction, but he eventually delivered her using forceps.

“It would be a disaster if they were to take that service away from our hospital. I went there just for a routine birth but, if it wasn’t for the doctor being there, what would have happened? I don’t like to think about it.”

With the afternoon wearing on, the Thousand Voices message was soon spanning the generations.

Five-year-old Olivia-Jo Parker spoke out on behalf of her shy mum, moments after Barrow granddad Ken Thomson added his voice to the campaign.

And while many parents explained their fears about the potential of having to travel to Lancaster in an emergency, others told how having consultant-care based in Barrow made their complicated pregnancies bearable.

Amy Darling gave birth to her twins, Harvey and Noah, at FGH at 34 weeks, having already gone into labour twice before.
The boys, now five, were born by emergency caesarean section.

Miss Darling had to deliver early because Harvey, the stronger of the two babies, was taking too many nutrients from his brother.

She saw a consultant once a week throughout her pregnancy.

The 27-year-old, of Bristol Street, Walney, said: “I look back at my pregnancy, and I say, ‘it was alright’, but it wasn’t really – it was actually pretty awful. But because of the service at FGH, it was doable.”

Of the possibility of having to travel to Lancaster for that service, she said: “I couldn’t have done it. I would’ve missed appointments, without a doubt.

“I don’t drive, at the time I had just moved back to the area, I had no money – there was nothing I could’ve done.”

Responding to the campaigners, UHMBT pointed out it is the county’s new GP-led commissioning team who will decide what
services they want hospitals to provide. Trust doctors and managers are working with them on the review.

UHMBT said no decisions have been made about how services might change, and the public will be involved in the discussions.

Trust chief executive, Jackie Daniel, said: “We fully understand the passion that local people have towards their health services and we share this passion. After all, these are also the hospitals that treat our staff and their
families.

“Our aim is to ensure services remain safe, offer standards of care equivalent to the best in the country and are sustainable.”

Having made such a successful start, the Thousand Voice campaigners are keen to keep the momentum up and are already planning their next step.

They plan to carry out more campaign days in different areas across Furness, and also hope to be able to work with schools, nurseries and children’s centres to target parents there.

Barrow and Furness MP, John Woodcock, is helping organise the push in support of his wife, Mandy Telford, one of the mums who came up with the campaign.

Speaking on Saturday, he said: “The response on the street today was great, every single person we stopped was concerned about this and wished us well in the campaign.”

Those who want to take part in the petition are asked to film a short clip on their camera or phone and send it to SaveFGHMaternity@gmail.com.

Anyone who struggles with technology can call 07502 423 605 or visit the Labour party office in Barrow’s Hartington Street for help.

To see the videos recorded so far, visit www.youtube.com/SaveFGHMaternity.

First published at 14:13, Monday, 07 January 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk