Well I have been stressing for a few days because the local  Collie hospital was planning on cutting on-call for theatre staff. My husband is a nurse at the hospital and he was not prepared for me to deliver the baby there if there was no emergency theatre available incase something went wrong. We were going to have to book into Bunbury 60km away. We were thinking we may have had to stay down there for a week or so before the baby is due as my husband does not drive (due to his epilepsy).

Well once word got out into the community that they were cutting the theater services there was - quite understandably an outcry. The decision to cut emergency theatre services has been postponed. Not thrown out, just postponed.

One of the reasons we chose to move to Collie was that they had a hospital with emergency theatre and obstetric services. Given our experiences living in a town without these things we felt they were very important.

We want to have our baby here in town. I figure that we will get excellent care at the local hospital, especially as my husband is on the staff. I will join the fight to keep these services even after our baby is born. I think it is important in a town of 10 000 people, especially with as much industry (coal mining, power stations, refinery etc) as we have that we keep these services. It is crazy, on the news each night they tell us that the state is booming and then they cut the services at the hospital in a town that is booming.