THOUSANDS of mums from Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley will have to give birth at Burnley General Hospital after a shock decision by health bosses.

Any mum expecting a complicated birth will be told to go to the hospital under the cash-saving plan.

Consultant-led maternity services as well as neo-natal intensive care units for sick babies will be axed from the new Royal Blackburn Hospital from 2009.

This will see about 2,400 babies born at Burnley General instead of Blackburn each year - about half the number of annual births.

And a pledge to keep midwife-led births at the site have been thrown into doubt over costs - raising fears that all births would have to go Burnley or even Royal Preston Hospital.

The news was greeted with shock by people in the area.

Helen Mayoh, of Baron Street, Darwen, gave birth to her third child Simon at Queen's Park Hospital, now part of the new hospital, in January.

She said: "This is a poor do. I would be nervous having to think I would travel all the way to Burnley, especially considering how sudden the birth of my last child was.

"It was a big enough rush to get to Queen's Park Hospital. Travelling to Burnley would have really put me off.

"The hospital is big enough. Surely in this day and age to not have a maternity unit in the town is ridiculous."

Husband Dave was even more scathing. He said: "Have a baby in Burnley? No thanks. That would put me off straight away.

"This has certainly spelt the end for any future baby boom."

The changes are part of a massive shake-up of services at the two hospitals.

Two options were put to the public and guaranteed a raft of changes that will see serious A&E patients sent to Blackburn only along with overnight children's care.

But about 5,700 people a year will have to go to Burnley instead of Blackburn for pre-booked operations such as hip replacements.

Only the fate of the birthing services, which include consultant-led maternity care and a neonatal intensive care unit for sick babies, hung in the balance.

Bosses from East Lancashire's three PCTs made the decision yesterday.

Previously two out of the three PCTs had indicated they supported having the baby services at Blackburn.

However, they came out in favour of Burnley at the meeting at Clayton Park Conference and Learning Centre, Clayton-le-Moors.

Bosses said Burnley should get the services as the pending closure of maternity units in Greater Manchester would mean that "access to services will be worsened for patients in Rossendale and the surrounding areas".

It also said the move would create income from people having to give birth in Burnley from Greater Manchester.

Patients in England can now choose between hospitals nearest to them. This means they take the money for their procedure with them.

Mums will still have access to an early assessment pregnancy unit for scans and antenatal clinics at the £113million Blackburn Hospital, which opened in July.

But a report to the decision committee cast into doubt whether it could continue to support a midwife-led birthing unit once consultants had left.

It said: "Some concern has been expressed about the critical mass of births required to make these units viable."

John Amos, vice chairman of the Patient and Public Involvement watchdog which oversees hospital services in East Lancashire, said: "Having just a midwife-led birthing centre in a hospital can become a costly exercise and my experience of other hospitals is that managers just shut them.

"It raises the question whether we will eventually see all births going to Burnley or Preston."

He said the plans lacked detail and would cause anxiety among people.

Mr Amos added: "It is sheer nonsense."

Tim Ellis, spokesman for the hospital's biggest union Unison said: "Staff are concerned about the removal of full emergency facilities at Burnley and the other loss of health service provision at both hospitals."

But Dr Ellis Friedman, a member of the committee, said the changes had to go through.

He said: "If we don't do something then there are grave dangers in terms of the ability to sustain high quality services in East Lancashire."

He said finances was "part of the urgency" to make decision but the "key driver" was to improve the quality of care.

He said: "This is not a series of changes which has been thought up and push through by faceless bureaucrats, by the management, this is a joint series of decisions which has the support of clinicians."

But Dr Friedman admitted there had to be a "trade off" between people soon having to travel further for treatment and better services.