Sometimes a local crisis can epitomise a national issue, and so how it gets resolved has ethical and policy implications that go all the way up to the top. The current attempt to close Stroud Maternity Hospital is such an instance.
The general opinion in Stroud is that men in suits are lacking the nerve to stand up to the Government and would rather keep their jobs than their principles. They will always seek an easy sacrifice, and a service run by women for women and their newborn babies might appear to be a soft target - surely there's nobody there whose opinion needs to be taken seriously?
But everyone in the community has objected to this proposed closure - hardly surprising, when anybody who wasn't born there will have a relative who was. The political candidates and representatives from all parties have joined on this issue, too - a heartening reminder that common sense and compassion can transcend the normal squabbles of party politics. The local paper published a delightful picture of them all holding newborn babies in a show of solidarity.
Stroud Maternity Hospital is a real centre of excellence, not just for the everyday maternity service it provides which is exceptional, but also for the support it offers to mothers who are even more vulnerable than usual.
The arrival of a baby can turn your life upside-down and precipitate a crisis of readjustment. But if you are already struggling with a mental health difficulty or a learning disability, or come from a background of domestic violence, or are still affected by maltreatment in your own childhood, then giving birth and the days immediately after it can be traumatic and mean a compromised relationship with your baby.
The importance of the quality of early attachment and the way in which this contributes to a lifetime of either resilience or risk is well known these days. A maternity unit that has the skills and commitment to offer the necessary help that will go towards building the foundations of a new person's life is too valuable to cut. We would never get it back.
Robin Balbernie is a consultant child psychotherapist in Gloucestershire
