LUCINDA Turnbull is six months pregnant with her second child - and is completely against any plans to take maternity services away from her home town of Redditch.

"These plans sound like a great solution for Worcester, but what about the rest of the county?" she says. "I am a member of the Redditch National Childbirth Trust and run antenatal classes, and every mum and mum-to-be I have spoken to thinks exactly the same.

"We don't think it's a good idea at all. There is one school of thought that says we are lucky to have had maternity services in Redditch in the first place.

"But now that we have had that luxury, we certainly don't want it taken away. I had my daughter Hannah there by Caesarean section three years ago and the treatment and care was first class."

As an expectant mother, Lucinda said the thought of having to give birth in Worcester does not appeal to her at all.

"The thought of it makes me very anxious," she said.

"If I went into labour in Redditch and something was to go wrong, it's a long way to the Royal.

"It's a good 45-minute journey.

"In fact, for me and many other pregnant women, the Royal isn't even our nearest hospital. We would opt to go to Warwick or Solihull instead - which means Worcester wouldn't get the money for our care anyway.

"If anything, I can see these proposals meaning the hospital trust losing money it would have made from commissioning."

Lucinda added that she didn't know how Worcester was going to cope with the extra demand.

"At the moment, Redditch has a pretty low birth rate at about 2,000 a year," she said.

"But the population is growing all the time and that number is only going to go up.

"It's something that should be concerning Worcester mums-to-be too if the unit can't cope with the extra births.

"There's also the added worry about who would visit me and if I was in Worcester. If I was in Redditch I could expect to see my husband and daughter twice a day, but if I was in Worcester that would be once a day at the most.

"And if my husband wanted to come without Hannah, there's the added pressure of finding childcare and asking friends for favours. It leads to more inconvenience and stress at a time which is stressful enough.

"There is no support for these plans here at all."