I clocked up 7,500 miles getting maternity care

Claire Fleming reckons she has travelled more than 7,500 miles to have children Molly, James and Andrew

More than 60 miles separate Glenluce in the south-west corner of Scotland from maternity services in Dumfries.

It is a journey Claire Fleming made so many times during her pregnancies that she reckons she clocked up more than 7,500 miles.

That, she says, is just for the appointments she can remember.

Now she is backing calls for an independent review of maternity services in her area to try to avoid more women enduring the same fate.

The issue goes back more than three-and-a-half years to when staff shortages at a birthing centre in the Galloway Community Hospital in Stranraer meant it was no longer able to carry out deliveries.

Despite recruitment efforts, that remains the case and leaves expectant mothers facing a lengthy car journey along the A75 to Dumfries for many appointments as well as births.

An action group has been formed demanding change and it recently met with public health minister Maree Todd.

Ms Fleming, 32, spoke at the meeting to highlight how she feels services have deteriorated over time.

Ms Fleming said husband Robert had to drive her to Dumfries while she was being sick

Her first experience was with a stillborn baby, Abbey, 10 years ago but she has had three children since - Molly, Andrew and James.

It is in the course of those four pregnancies that she calculates she and husband Robert have travelled a significant distance with the mileage rising after services were suspended in Stranraer.

"I've worked it out - and this is only the appointments that I can remember going to - and I have done about 7,600 miles just in order to have the three babies that I have," she said.

She said her own experience of the journey to Dumfries - aggravated by hyperemesis (severe nausea during pregnancy) - had been "horrendous".

"I'm not exaggerating when I say I was being sick every 15 minutes with it," she said.

"That would have been a bad enough journey having to travel the 15 miles to Stranraer, which I had to do every single time to get seen by my midwife locally.

"But then they sent you down to Dumfries - it was purely to be put on a drip. That's the only thing that they ever could do for me was put me on a drip."

Ms Fleming said she was now aware of women in the area deciding not to get pregnant because they were "so scared" of the situation.

"We're having women of my age choosing not to have children because of where they live," she said.

It has also had an impact on her own family.

The Fleming family has experience of maternity services in the region going back 10 years

"I would have as many children as I could, I absolutely loved having children," she said.

"I got sterilised the last time that I was in the hospital and the reason that happened was purely because I couldn't face doing that journey again with hyperemesis."

Now she is fighting to reverse what she sees as a decline in provision.

"We had Abbey 10 years ago, she was the baby that was stillborn, and the service in Stranraer was great then from my perspective," she said.

"You could always contact a midwife, there seemed to be a lot of midwives working and the clinic was open - it felt like a functioning midwife unit."

However, when they had Molly - now aged seven - she said the service had deteriorated "a little bit" with all scans carried out in Dumfries.

Ms Fleming said she knew of women in the area who were "scared" to have children

By the time James, aged three, was born she said "every single appointment" was at the region's main hospital.

When Andrew came along a year ago a local scan service had resumed which she said was a "really big help" but there was still significant travelling required.

"It's absolutely nothing to do with the midwife service in Stranraer," she stressed.

Ms Fleming said they were working hard in "awful conditions" but there were "just not enough of them" to provide the service they once did.

The Scottish government said it expected all health boards to provide maternity services "as close to home as possible" but that had to be balanced with ensuring safety.

It said it recognised the challenges facing remote and rural areas and was working with NHS Dumfries and Galloway to address those.

It said Ms Todd had heard local concerns and discussions were ongoing to see what support could be provided.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway said it faced "very significant challenges" around recruiting to the birthing centre in Stranraer.

It also highlighted that only 17 births had taken place at the site in 2017 - the year before that service was suspended.

Scans have been able to be delivered locally again since 2020 and talks are ongoing about a potential review of provision.