The plan is to change the maternity unit

Politicians urged campaigners to keep fighting a review which recommends the establishment of a midwife-led unit at Caithness General Hospital.

They said lives of mothers and babies will be threatened if they have to be taken to Inverness in an emergency.

NHS Highland is consulting over the replacement of the consultant-led service with a midwife-led service.

In his report into the service, Professor Andrew Calder said it was "virtually impossible" to sustain the current service at the hospital due to impending changes in employment law and contractual requirements, and because of the scarcity of consultant obstetricians.

He said the situation was the same for other maternity units across Scotland.

Inquiry call

Campaigners made their feelings known when they gathered at the front of the hospital for the Mother's Day protest.

Thirty-five-year-old mother Barbara Kennedy, from Dunnet, said the downgrading would spell disaster for the area.

Another mother Eswyl Fell, from Wick, described the downgrading as unthinkable.

Pipers led demonstrators on a march from the hospital to Market Square.