A MOTHER whose daughter gave birth 35 minutes after arriving at hospital is outraged by the decision to close its delivery unit.

Kirsti Williams, 19, of Hurstwood Avenue, Black-burn, was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital after going into labour with her second son, Alex Easton.

Kirsti had been in labour for 30 minutes before arriving at the hospital's delivery suite and gave birth to her 7lb 1oz baby 35 minutes later at 8.05am.

Following Kirsti's short labour her mother, Mandy McGawley, 46, of Hurstwood Avenue, Blackburn, said she feared expectant mothers will have a rush to Burnley General Hospital to give birth if there are complications.

Health bosses have said Blackburn and Burnley cannot both have a neonatal intensive care unit for sick babies - and backed basing services at Burnley. This will mean thousands of Blackburn mums going to Burnley each year.

But Mandy believes plans for birthing centres in Blackburn would provide inadequate facilities. Mandy, who has eight children, said: "Kirsti's was a quick birth and there were no complications. But that does not mean to say that Alex's birth could not have gone wrong, if it had, doctors would have been at hand. Blackburn needs a delivery suite. I expect birthing centres will not have emergency doctors and this will cause more distress if anything goes wrong.

"If an expected uncom-plicated birth goes wrong in a hospital, emergency help is readily available.

"I can imagine at the birthing centres there would be a wait for an ambulance before the mother is taken to Burnley General, another 20 minutes away.

"Many people may think this issue won't affect them. It might not now but in years to come when they are pregnant or have partners who are due to give birth, it will."

A spokesman for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We successfully consulted on Meeting Patients' Needs service model last year. This establishes more choices in East Lancashire by creating birthing centres in strateg-ically located comm-unity settings whilst centralising consultant based obstetrics in a new women's and children's centre on the Burnley General Hospital Site.

@As yet there are no firm dates for when this change will take place."