March to bring back maternity service to Huddersfield

May 13 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Walkers’ 37,000 ft for two little feet

CAMPAIGNERS are taking steps to raise awareness of their bid to bring full maternity services back to Huddersfield.

Supporters of the MOMS (Move our Maternity Services) campaign will between them walk 37,000 feet around Greenhead Park on Sunday.

The distance is roughly the same as that from Huddersfield Royal Infirmary to Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax.

Consultant-led maternity services were moved from HRI to Calderdale last August, despite major public protests.

The MOMS campaign was organised by Alanna Delahaye and Glynn Bates, of Coombe Road in Golcar.

They lost their daughter, Maisie Bates, last September after last-minute complications with the pregnancy.

Alanna, 22, had been due to give birth at the Huddersfield Birth Centre, but had to be taken to Calderdale when late tests revealed Maisie’s heart rate was dangerously low.

The little girl survived the birth but was severely brain damaged because the oxygen supply to her brain had been cut off as a result of her umbilical cord being tightly wrapped around her.

Alanna and Glynn took the decision to take her off life support on September 11.

They believe she would have survived if Alanna had been able to go to HRI to give birth and launched the MOMS campaign to put pressure on Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust to return consultant-led services to Huddersfield.

The couple are expecting more than 20 people to join them for Sunday’s walk.