THE number of mothers and newborns who suffered emergency complications during labour at a Highland maternity unit has been "significantly lower" since midwives took charge at the end of last year.

A report which will be presented on Tuesday at a meeting of the NHS Highland board said the figures show that the new arrangements "are working as planned".

The Caithness Maternity Unit in Wick switched from being consultant-led to midwife-led in December 2016. The move faced local opposition from campaigners unhappy that women at risk of birthing complications would have to give birth 102 miles away at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

The facility was previously led by consultant obstetricians, but the health board said the new model would be safer since the Caithness site had no specialist neonatal paediatric support or adult intensive care.

The report by Roderick Harvey, medical director for NHS Highland, said there have been 12 births at the Caithness unit since December 1 2016 and that "in all cases the outcomes for mother and newborn were good".

He added: "There has been one neonatal transfer as a result of an unanticipated concern over the baby. This was managed according to agreed protocols and both mother and baby have had a good outcome. No mothers who were booked for birth in the CMU required to be transferred during labour.

"Both the maternal and neonatal transfer figures are very significantly lower than before and are key indicators that the Unit and new arrangements are working as planned."

Figures in the report show that during the first four months as a midwife-led unit, there had been one emergency transfer involving a newborn compared to six between December 2015 and March 2015, when the unit was still consultant-led.

Although no mothers required an urgent or emergency transferred during childbirth, seven women were transferred away from the Caithness unit as emergency cases after labour in the first four months after it became midwife-led. In comparison, there had been 14 emergency or urgent transfers under the consultant-led service in the same four-month period a year before.

Since the launch of the midwife-led service, 85 women resident in Caithness have given birth at Raigmore Hospital, including 20 elective caesarean sections and 15 emergency caesarean sections.

The reconfiguration of maternity services in Highland followed internal and external reviews after the deaths of five newborn babies at Caithness General since 2010. An external review and report suggested that at least two of these were "potentially avoidable".