Melton baby unit campaigners prepare for protest event this weekend
Campaigners are set to march through Melton Mowbray this weekend to protest the pausing of services at the town’s baby unit and its threatened closure as a venue for future births.
The event is being organised by Save St Mary’s Birth Centre, a local group which has fought against the potential loss of the unit over several years.
The local health authority intends to consolidate all county maternity services in Leicester as part of a major £450M reorganisation of hospitals across Leicestershire and Rutland.
It was hoped that St Mary’s Birth Centre would stay open up to around 2030 because of the time it will take to create a new midwife-led baby unit at Leicester General and enhance maternity care at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.
But in July, the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) announced that births and in-patient post-natal care were being paused at St Mary’s for six months due to a significant staff shortage and a drop in the number of women giving birth there.
The UHL maintains that no decision has so far been taken on whether the unit will reopen fully in January but the Save St Mary’s Birth Centre group fear the pausing move is a method of closing the unit ‘by the back door’.
On Saturday, dozens of parents who have had children at the unit are expected to be joined in a protest march through town by many who plan to have babies there and other residents who want to see the birth centre kept operating.
Participants are asked to gather at 10.15am outside the King’s Head in Nottingham Street with the march starting at 10.30am in the direction of the town parks.
This will be followed by activities at the Bandstand from 11am to celebrate all that St Mary’s Birth Centre has meant to the community over several decades.
Family-friendly garden games will be available alongside opportunities to share positive stories and listen to a variety of speakers.
Helen Cliff, from the campaign group, said: “It is important to protest the current situation but also to celebrate this amazing facility which provides gold-standard care for so many women, especially post-natally.
"The announcement about pausing services at St Mary’s, so soon after it’s glowing report from the CQC in 2023, came as a real shock.
"Many people we have spoken to wanted to find a way to express just how important St Mary’s is, not just to our community in Melton, but to women right across Leicestershire and Rutland.
"It remains our position that closing St Mary’s is a short-sighted and retrograde step in women’s healthcare.
"This pause must not turn into closure by the back door.
"We are appealing to local NHS bosses to hear our voices and protect our choices - before we lose such a vital service for good.”
As part of the celebration, organisers of the event have launched a competition to find the family who can boast the most generations of St Mary’s babies.
Families who think they might fit the bill are invited to come down to the Bandstand on Saturday and make themselves known.
Go to www.change.org/p/reopen-and-secure-st-mary-s-birth-centre to sign a petition, which already has over 2,000 signatories.