Coleraine: Rally held in protest at Causeway Hospital maternity decision

Dozens of people took part in Saturday's protest

A campaigner has said women are "extremely worried" by the decision to halt births at Causeway Hospital.

Last month the Department of Health announced maternity services would be consolidated at Antrim Area Hospital.

Campaign group SoS Causeway Hospital held a march from the hospital to Coleraine town hall on Saturday in protest at the decision.

The changes come into effect from Monday after a 14-week consultation.

On Friday the group met the Northern Health and Social Care Trust which said the move "does not mean we wish to downgrade Causeway Hospital".

The maternity decision "in no way signals its closure", the trust added.

Gemma Brolly of SoS Causeway Hospital said people see the maternity sevices move as a "stripping of services"

"As a trust providing health and social care services in our community, it is important that we best serve the changing demographic of the area's population, which is why we have made significant investment in enhancing our ambulatory and frailty care services at Causeway Hospital," it said.

The trust has said births had fallen in the Causeway Coast and Glens area and were expected to decline by 11% within the next 20 years.

But on Saturday, Gemma Brolly from SoS Causeway Hospital said women in the community were "extremely worried".

"People, specifically people in the rural community, see this as stripping of services, services that they have every bit as much right to as anybody else," she said.

A number of trade unions took part in Saturday's rally

"As of midnight tomorrow there will no longer be a facility here at Causeway Hospital to give birth.

"So you will have possibly ladies going into birth, perhaps some of them in emergency situations, and they will have to bypass their local hospital and go on down the road to Antrim."

Lauren McAuley, who took part in the protest, said a real disservice was being done to women in the area.

"We can't tell a baby that's on the way 'can you just give me another 50 minutes while I drive up the road'," she said.

"We're not prioritising things here; we're putting lives at risk."

Another woman, Jade Best, said her experiences of giving birth to her two children at Causeway hospital had been "fantastic".

"We got to use the new water birth maternity suite," she said.

"The water birth suite is just out of this world. It was new in 2018."

She added: "We're just all out in force because we don't want the maternity unit to close."

Jade Best said her experiences of giving birth to her children at the Causeway Hospital were fantastic

The Northern Trust had recommended that all births in the area should permanently move to the Antrim site.

However, the department said antenatal and postnatal clinics will be retained and enhanced at Causeway Hospital.

The trust said the move was the "best outcome for women and babies in our care".

On Friday a pregnant woman who lives near Ballycastle in County Antrim told BBC News NI that expectant mothers in the area face a drive of more than an hour to Antrim.

She said this could harm he mental health of those affected, as well as having a financial impact.