Some women are travelling greater distances to give birth

The group said mothers in rural areas in particular were being poorly served by the downgrading of their local maternity units.

In response, the Scottish Executive denied that services were being centralised or downgraded.

Maternity services should be delivered as locally as possible, it said.

Changes across Scotland over the last few years have provoked widespread protest from objectors.

Consultants said they needed to work out of bigger hospitals in order to keep up their skills and provide a safe service.

The convention, which is funded by the Scottish Executive to give women more of a voice in policy-making, said more mothers-to-be were travelling significant distances to have their babies.

The consultant told me I was a fool to even consider having my first baby in a midwife-led unit Liz MacFarlane Mother

This raised the risk to mother and baby, increased the number of caesareans and widened the chances of post-natal depression because relatives could not be there.

Mother Liz MacFarlane was one of the last to give birth at Inverclyde Royal Hospital before its maternity unit consultants were moved 15 miles away to Paisley.

But Ms MacFarlane, who wanted to give birth where she lived in Dunoon, said: "I was really happy with the support local midwives could give me.

Consultant feedback

"I was also very comfortable that if anything had gone untoward that their support would be there."

She added: "But the feedback I got from the consultant would not have encouraged me to stay.

"He told me I was a fool to even consider having my first baby in a midwife-led unit and that under no circumstances would he support anyone that he knew to do so."

Molly Baikie was a manager at Caithness General Hospital in Wick and joined the North Action Group when the baby unit was threatened with closure.

"Health boards must listen more to the patients in all walks of life, whether it be the socio-economic problems that they have in the west or the rural problems which are in the south west or in the far north.

"But they do not listen to what the patients are saying," she said.

'Knock-on effect'

The report from the Scottish Women's Convention is at odds with medical opinion and many health boards in its opposition to smaller maternity units being cut back or closed.

Spokeswoman Debbie King said expectant mothers worried that they were at increased risk because of longer journeys to hospital and felt let down.

"The huge concerns were that as more services were centralised, the distances they were travelling would inevitably have a knock-on effect on how they chose to have their babies," she said.

In Scotland we need to look at what works well and efficiently and make that good practice the norm Lewis Macdonald Deputy Health Minister

"The safety issues are a huge concern because if they are having to get ambulances which are having to go one or two hours - sometimes much further during the winter - then there's a huge issue of how they choose to have their babies."

She went on: "Huge concerns in Caithness and some of the other areas have been about if they have to go to hospitals early to make sure they are going to have safe deliveries, the impact on home life is huge.

"Partners are having to come to visit them, the expense, the economic impact and also the social impact in terms of how the families cope and how the community copes with all these changes."

Minister's reaction

Deputy Health Minister Lewis Macdonald said the safety and well-being of all mothers and children was paramount.

�We are not centralising maternity services nor are we �downgrading� them," he said.

"We want services that are as local as possible and as specialised as necessary. The recent Kerr report makes clear that maternity services should be delivered as locally as possible. "It recognises the role of the midwife as the lead professional in low risk maternity services while acknowledging the need for consultant input to more complex births.

�In Scotland we need to look at what works well and efficiently and make that good practice the norm.�