More than 300 protestors including pregnant women braved the sweltering heat on Saturday to protest against the cuts in birthing services in Murwillumbah, a northern NSW town. This is the latest attempt to draw attention to Murwillumbah Hospital's drastically reduced maternity services and the resignation of the service's last full-time obstetrician.

Organisers of the rally withheld details of the proposed rally from the public in a bid to keep the numbers in control as well as to thwart any attempts on stopping the rally. The last rally saw 7000 people turn out to support the cause and this year at least 1000 protesters are expected to turn up.

Murwillumbah Hospital support committee chairman Ian Ross said he suspected health officials knew of the protest but warned they would be 'foolish' to try to stop it. He said the locals were demanding the return of full time maternity services to be provided locally. He added that residents were concerned the unit was being closed 'by stealth'.

Doctors said caesarean services had been cut and all emergency cases were to be directed to Tweed hospital. Currently, all high-risk births and emergency caesarean section deliveries entail women travelling to Tweed Hospital on Friday, Saturday and Sunday after local arrangements ended. Obstetrics care is shared between visiting medical officers and a locum.

One of the four obstetricians who quit last week, doctor Sarah-Jane McEwan said this would result in an added burden on the already overcrowded Tweed hospital and would also place pregnant women at risk. "I guess the first question all the mothers have when they meet with me in the rooms is will you be able to deliver my baby and what's happening at the hospital as we all know births cannot be done between Monday and Thursday," she said.

"Unfortunately sometimes people do birth Friday Saturday Sunday in which case if they need emergency caesars they need to get shipped to Tweed which is quite distressing to the mums."

North Coast Area Health Service chief executive Chris Crawford said he had no intention of stopping today's protest and had attended previous rallies as a guest speaker. He added he was committed to keeping obstetrics services open but in what form that took was the subject of ongoing consultation. (Harkiran contributed to this report)