Health Secretary Humza Yousaf is being told to step in and unpick the centralisation of Highland maternity services in Inverness.
Campaigners are angry that some women have to travel over 100 miles to give birth in Inverness instead of areas such as Caithness.
They compare the journey to someone in Edinburgh to Newcastle to deliver their babies.
In Holyrood on Thursday, the health secretary was urged to restore full maternity services in Caithness general hospital.
‘That is absolutely unacceptable’
A review into maternity services was carried out in 2015 after the death of a full-term baby in Caithness.
In 2016 a decision was taken to make the local unit midwife-led.
This means the majority of new mums have to travel 104 miles south to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness to give birth.
Meanwhile, other women are being asked to travel to Inverness from Moray to give birth because of downgraded services at Dr Gray’s in Elgin.
In Holyrood, Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said: “Women are having to travel over 100 miles to give birth – that’s like asking women from Edinburgh to go to Newcastle to give birth and that is absolutely unacceptable.”
She questioned the independence of a Highland maternity services review, a claim which Mr Yousaf rejects.
Health secretary defends move
Mr Yousaf said the changes were agreed “unanimously” by the NHS Highland board.
He criticised the “tone and implication” and called for MSPs to get behind a review into maternity services across Highland, Grampian, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles health boards.
He said he’s met campaigners in Caithness calling for improvements to be made.
And he offered reassurances there are protocols in place for transferring women in labour to Inverness to give birth.
Mr Yousaf refused to be drawn on whether he would step in and decentralise services away from Inverness.
Conversation