As the mother of two pre-school children enjoying the security of living just five minutes away from Chase Farm Hospital, it goes without saying the prospect of drastically increased journey times should emergency services be transferred to Barnet Hospital, concern me greatly.

However, it is the proposed loss of maternity services at the Chase Farm site that cause me to put forward my views now.

In July, I was lucky enough to give birth to my second child at home with expert support from the ChaseFarm-based community midwives. It was such a wholly different experience to my first labour in hospital; so very relaxed that I would even say I enjoyed it, and I managed to cope with no pain relief at all.

I made my decision to give birth at home, based on the fact that should any complications occur, Chase Farm was no more than ten minutes drive away, even in heavy rush hour traffic. I would not have made this decision if Barnet was my nearest available hospital as it could very easily take more than 30 minutes to get there.

I realise that mothers requesting a home birth are only a tiny proportion of those cared for by Chase Farm maternity services, but my midwife suggests to me that the trend does seem to be on the up. Given a national movement towards providing choice in maternity services, it seems ironic and very sad that a decision to move women's inpatient services to Barnet Hospital would ultimately remove this as an option for the mothers-to-be of Enfield.

I choose to live in an urban area because of the benefits of having all kinds of facilities close at hand - and I feel very angry that myself and the people of Enfield may well have to do without essential healthcare facilties on this side of the borough.

Emma Halstead
Manor Road
Enfield