The Northern Southland community banded together on Wednesday night to fight for the district's maternity unit to remain.
The Southern District Health Board (SDHB) recently proposed downgrading the Lumsden Maternity Centre to a maternity health hub.
A hub would provide antenatal and postnatal support for women in the area, but would not house a birthing unit, meaning women in the area would have to travel to a primary care unit if needed.
The meeting at the Lumsden Memorial Hall was attended by the SDHB and the Northern Southland Medical Trust, which runs the maternity unit and is volunteer-based.
The more than 200 people who attended grilled the SDHB on the plan.
The only full-time lead maternity carer in the district, midwife Sarah Stokes, questioned the reliability of the board's figures, comparing them with her own statistics from 2014.
According to Ministry of Health criteria, there must be at least 100 births within an area annually for a primary birthing unit to remain open.
The SDHB said there were 65 births in the district last year.
"Its [the maternity unit's] closure is proof that the SDHB don't value the outcomes of births of babies. The DHB are all about the numbers and statistics, so let's look at mine," Mrs Stokes said.
"Last year, I personally had 100 pregnancy registrations.
"The day you issue a closing date for Lumsden Maternity [Centre] is the day I stop taking bookings."
The SDHB responded that figures and locations would be looked at again before anything was confirmed.
SDHB executive director of strategy Lisa Gestro said the proposal to have a hub was a response to the changing situations within communities.
"We find it difficult to be nimble and respond to change in our system, so this is all about creating a platform that, moving forward, we want to respond to the changing needs of our populations. And they vary greatly across the districts."
Mrs Gestro said a start to this would be providing the lead maternity carer in the district with the support needed.
"Invariably, in a nutshell, the services are not currently matched with the need across our system."
Mrs Gestro said the proposed change was not about saving money but about working out the inconsistencies in the system.
"It will not just be about maternity, but about the whole experience," she said.
Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker said he was proud of the mothers who stepped forward to speak.
"This was the community's night to share their concerns with the Southern DHB and I was very proud of all the brave mothers who shared their emotional experiences in front of such a large crowd," Mr Walker said.
"This isn't easy, and takes a serious amount of courage and bravery," he said
- Lucy McDonough
