Leeton’s Erin Warne is pregnant with her second child and due to give birth at any moment.

While the experience has been a happy one for herself, husband Michael and three-year-old son Ollie, it has also been tough knowing Mrs Warne can’t have her baby in her home town. The Leeton hospital has been without an obstetrician since May last year. 

Mrs Warne has now planned to have her baby in Griffith, pending all goes well when she goes into labour. “It’s such a step backwards (not being able to have a baby in Leeton) … it’s 2017,” Mrs Warne said.

“It’s scary too. With Ollie we were five minutes from the hospital (in Katherine). It never crossed your mind. You just jumped in the car and off you went to have your baby. Here it’s a saga. They told us at first sign call Leeton hospital, go and see them. They’ll assess you and give you three options. 

“It will be ‘not fit for travel’, ‘fit for travel in your own car’ or ‘fit for travel via ambulance’. I think something so special, it just adds unnecessary stress. You go to one hospital where you should be able to stay. It’s just something you shouldn’t have to plan for.”

Mrs Warne has been told she can return back to the Leeton hospital once she has her baby to be cared for by midwives. She said the proposed midwifery-led model of care would likely place extra burden on hospital staff already under the pump. The greatest issue to irk Mrs Warne was there seemed to be no definitive answers. 

“The thing that annoys me is the vague answers (about why there is no obstetrician),” she said. “What caused the loss and what has to happen to get it back? Is it an issue with the hospital or is it to do with staff … no one can give you an answer. As a mother, who now has to go through something that I believe is unnecessary, I think we deserve an answer.”