Maternity Services in Gordon

That the Parliament notes that under-use has been cited as the reason for a proposal to close the midwife-led maternity unit at Insch and District War Memorial Hospital and further notes that a recent local campaign making mothers-to-be aware of the option of local delivery increased the number of women choosing to be delivered there; recognises that there are legitimate local concerns that the midwife-led maternity unit which is to be retained at the Jubilee Hospital in Huntly, the next town, will also find itself under threat of closure in the future unless women are encouraged to use it, and therefore urges local GPs, Grampian Primary Care NHS Health Trust, and Grampian Health Board in consultation with the Scottish Executive to do much more to raise the status of midwives and make better use of their skills, to reverse the trend to ‘over-medicalise’ childbirth and to promote the attitude that birth is a natural process and should be treated as such.