Dr Gray's midwife to support pregnant Moray women with fund named after friend's stillborn baby
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A MORAY midwife has vowed to support vulnerable pregnant women in the region with a fund named after a friend's stillborn baby.
Ashley Robson, who has worked as a midwife at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin for 13 years, has seen first-hand the impact the maternity unit's downgrade has had on Moray women.
Inspired by their struggles, Ashley set up Moray Maternity Therapies to offer services to women in the region that aren't available with the NHS.
And the business has already received recognition after Ashley won the Best Social Impact award at a competition run by the University of Highlands and Islands.
"The goal behind the business is to provide more choice for women in Moray," Ashley said.
"I set it up because of what's happened with the downgrade. As a midwife I'm seeing how stressed and anxious a lot of women are.
"Most of them have to go to Aberdeen to have their baby so quite often we're transferring the women in labour by ambulance which is obviously a huge stress for them.
"It's causing a lot of anxiety in the build up to their labour.
"I can offer women specialised services that can help with all sorts of complaints during pregnancy.
"Just being able to give them that little extra something during the pregnancy to help is really rewarding."
Colette Melaugh's daughter Ruby was stillborn in March after she had to travel more than two hours to get to the nearest consultant led unit.
Ashley has decided to use the £500 she received for winning the Best Social Impact award to help vulnerable pregnant women in Ruby's memory. She has named it the Ruby Fund.
Ashley said: "I saw Colette after her daughter had been born. She made a comment about how she would love to be able to see me every week because it helped her deal with the anxiety and with her loss but she told me she just couldn't afford it.
"It got me thinking that there are probably so many women out there in Moray that would benefit from these services.
"I'll get the community midwives involved and once a month if any of them have any women that they feel would benefit from the treatment then they can get in touch and I'll offer somebody treatment for free."
Colette added: "My daughter would have been Moray Maternity Therapies' first baby. Unfortunately, and tragically, Ruby was stillborn on March 24 this year.
"Ashley contacted me and asked if she could name her fund after our baby girl and so the Ruby Fund was born. Brendan and I feel so honoured that our daughter is being commemorated in such a wonderful way. Her memory will live on in many ways but this is very special."
The Scottish Government announced earlier this year that up to £6.6 million will be made available to support the full restoration of maternity services at Dr Gray's by 2026.
A phased return will begin later this year with enhanced antenatal care while elective caesarean births will re-start in early 2025.
And Ashley is hopeful that Elgin midwives will be utilised to their full potential once again after a "difficult" five years.
"It has been difficult," Ashley said. "Prior to the downgrade we provided care for all women in Moray bar a select few. As a ward midwife I would have them from early in their pregnancy right through the them giving birth.
"At that point we would have the opportunity to use all of our skills. Since then, the number of women giving birth at Dr Gray's is so minimal that we've not been getting the same use out of our skills.
"That's obviously been frustrating because we want to offer the best care we possibly can and we've not been getting the opportunity to do that.
"We're still doing our best but we've been limited in terms of what we can do.
"Obviously we're moving towards getting the unit back up and running again which is great but in the meantime if I can help even a handful of women then absolutely that's what I'd love to do."
