SUPPORT is growing fast for Birth Right, the Gazette & Herald's campaign to save the maternity unit at Malton, Norton and District Hospital.

We are still urging people to send in petition forms, and now Mayor of Malton, Jane Ford has come on board, and will be gathering signatures for our petition in Malton Market Place on Saturday.

As many people as possible need to come along and register their concern before the right to have your baby in Malton is lost.

Coun Ford, who has already been raising awareness on the issue, gave birth to two of her three children at the hospital. She said: "I really am encouraged by the response we have had. People are stopping me in the street, they are really fearing this proposed closure. I know from experience that it is a wonderful place and we really need to do everything we can to save it."

The threat to the service comes as part of a turnaround plan for the cash-strapped Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare Trust, which is aiming to plug a £27million deficit.

Part of this is a proposed change in the Trust's maternity services - with Ryedale mums facing a choice of home births or deliveries at larger district hospitals such as Scarborough and York, with no in-between option of a midwife-led low-risk birth at Malton offered.

Also backing our campaign are medics at Malton's Derwent Surgery. GP Dr Clive Diggory said: "We're supposed to be in an era of patient choice, that's what the Government's discussing, but women are having their choice diminished to home deliveries or consultant-led deliveries at York or Scarborough.

"Home deliveries are something we've tried not to encourage because of the possibility of risks. Malton was always a very convenient halfway house for people who wanted a straightforward birth in a secure, medical environment.''