A young mother who was nearly five months pregnant when she lost her baby in the back of an ambulance outside A&E has said that the ordeal left her so traumatised she struggles to leave the house.

Chantice Gibb, from Stranraer, was 19 weeks pregnant when she gave birth to her dead son and had to be rushed to hospital in Dumfries with potentially life-threatening complications when the placenta became stuck.

Ms Gibb, 27, said she wanted to speak out about her experience to highlight the impact of cuts to local maternity services in the Galloway region.

She is in the process of resolving a complaint with NHS Dumfries and Galloway, and has asked for a written apology and changes to staff training after being told that the A&E department lacked the expertise to deal with her case.

She said: "I want Stranraer A&E to be a bit more prepared for this kind of thing, so that no other women will go through what I did. It's mentally scarred me what went on.

"I want them to be better trained, and I want them to try to reopen the midwifery unit at Stranraer so that women can be in a better environment to give birth.

"And I want a written apology and to know, in writing, what went wrong. I want some closure."

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The birthing suite at Galloway Community Hospital in Stranraer was mothballed in 2018 due to staffing shortages, but an independent review which reported back in August 2023 recommended that a maternity hub with on-call midwives should be taken forward.

At present, mothers-to-be in the area face a choice between home births or travelling 75 miles to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.

In 2022, one mother - Gina Ellis - described the "absolutely terrifying" experience of giving birth to her baby daughter in the back of an ambulance next to the A75, while another, Clare Fleming, revealed that she had been expected to drive herself from her home in Glenluce, Wigtownshire to Dumfries to deliver her stillborn baby.

Campaigners previously warned that the situation had left many women "too scared to get pregnant".

Ms Gibb, now a mother-of-four, had been experiencing recurrent pain and bleeding during her pregnancy in 2022 but said she was repeatedly sent home with "strong pain relief" and told there was "nothing wrong" following checks at the Royal Infirmary in Dumfries.

In the early hours of August 9 2022 she went to A&E at the Galloway Community Hospital in pain and bleeding, but said the doctor who treated her "failed to notice that I was losing my child".

She said: "He put a swab in me and said 'the pain should go down now, you should be fine'. Well no, it made it worse.

"He said to me that if I wanted to go to Dumfries it would be a 12-hour wait for an ambulance. By this point I really couldn't communicate because I was in so much in pain.

"I was screaming - I knew something was wrong."

The Herald: Women in the Dumfries and Galloway region can choose between home births or travelling to the Royal Infirmary in Dumfries to give birthWomen in the Dumfries and Galloway region can choose between home births or travelling to the Royal Infirmary in Dumfries to give birth (Image: Getty)

Four hours later an ambulance arrived to transport Ms Gibb to Dumfries as an emergency, but the vehicle had not yet left the car park when she miscarried shortly after 8am.

She said: "When I got into the ambulance, I was violently sick. They were in the middle of clearing that up when I gave birth before the ambulance had even switched its ignition on.

"My son was no longer with us.

"When they took me back into A&E, they put my son in a bag without me seeing him. It felt like he was trash. They didn't tell me if I'd had a son or a daughter - I had to ask.

"I had lost a lot of blood by this point and my placenta was stuck inside me which was dangerous - it wasn't coming out."

Ms Gibb was blue-lighted to the Royal Infirmary in Dumfries where she credits medics for saving her life.

However, she said the ordeal has scarred her mentally.

She said: "It was a horrible, horrible experience. I don't feel like I can trust doctors anymore.

"If my daughter's unwell, I'm panicking that they're not checking her over properly because they didn't me.

"I don't like leaving the house. My mental health has crashed."

The Herald: The health has previously said it faced 'significant difficulties' recruiting enough midwives to the Galloway maternity unitThe health has previously said it faced 'significant difficulties' recruiting enough midwives to the Galloway maternity unit (Image: PA)

Willie Scobie, the local councillor for Stranraer who has campaigned to restore the area's maternity services, said: "Having accompanied Chantice Gibb at her complaint meeting, I was appalled to hear the devastating experience Chantice went through with even more devastating consequences for Chantice.

"Such matters should never have happened for a woman to present herself in the way that Chantice did at the Galloway Community Hospital and to be told she would need to wait 12 hours for an ambulance to take her to Dumfries or find her own way.

"This is totally unacceptable, but the truth of the matter is Chantice is not the only case I have heard of this happening to.

"We need the maternity unit at the Galloway Community Hospital to be reopened having been closed since 2018.

"A recent review carried out by a number of eminent retired senior midwives and led by the consultant from Crosshouse Maternity Hospital in Kilmarnock, Dr Crawford McGuffie, concluded with their preferred option being for the maternity unit at the Galloway Community Hospital in Stranraer to be reopened as a Community Midwifery-led service.

"So far this has not been implemented by the health board as they procrastinate over the matter.

"Had the maternity unit at the GCH remained open and functional from 2018, there may have been a chance that what happened to Chantice would not have happened or, indeed, the number of women in Wigtown who have given birth at the side of the road not having reached Dumfries from the 75 mile journey between Stranraer to Dumfries on the A75 that is a treacherous and dangerous road."

A spokesman for NHS Dumfries and Galloway said it could not comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality. 

He added: "NHS Dumfries and Galloway are currently reviewing their maternity service provision for birthing services in the Wigtownshire area and the outputs of local consultation will be shared with the IJB in due course. 

"Antenatal and postnatal maternity care continues to be provided throughout the region at this time, including from The Oak Tree Family Centre [in Stranraer]."