Born at Dr Gray's, now working there: Moray rebuilds maternity service as a midwife and patient reunite

A newly-qualified midwife has started work at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin, the hospital where she was born, joining the community midwife who cared for her as a newborn as NHS Grampian accelerates efforts to restore Moray's maternity service.

Leah Hobson, 21, began her role this month as part of a recruitment drive aimed at delivering a full maternity service in Moray. The coincidence of starter and story has drawn attention to the broader plan to rebuild the service after years of pressure on staffing and facilities in the region.

Leah was born in 2004 at Dr Gray's and was visited in her early weeks by community midwife Carol Bennett. Bennett, now 62, recalls her routine visits and the special effort to help Leah's family choose a name after the birth. "Everything was pretty straight-forward and standard, the one thing that sticks in your mind is there isn't a name for the baby yet," Bennett said. "I had not been in a situation of discharging a baby that had not been named yet. Our episode of care finished before she was named. We were part of the Pinkie period." Leah, who would later recall her nickname as a child, said her mother eventually settled on Leah after a two-month wait.

Leah herself grew up in a family that valued the local health system. She attended Bishopmill Primary and Elgin Academy before deciding to pursue a career in midwifery. "I wanted to be a midwife roughly since I was nine, but properly since 11, because my niece was born when I was nine, and had a nephew born here (Dr Gray's) when I was 11," she said. "Seeing the environment and realizing a bump on a woman is a whole baby right in front of you, it was just bizarre but amazing at the same time." She began a three-year Bachelor of Midwifery at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen at 17 and joined Dr Gray's in April. On her first day, she described the experience as surreal: "When you finish your training as a student you don't feel 100% ready; you need to actually get out and do things for yourself. I did mention on my first day I was born here, it was strange to think I was born here and I work here. It's all connecting a wee bit. It was good to start here, I was glad of it."

Leah has already been involved in numerous births since starting at Dr Gray's. Bennett said it was "absolutely lovely" that she was now working with Leah and that their paths cross often in the hospital community. Bennett recalled bumping into Leah and her mother in a local supermarket during a placement in Inverness and joked that Leah might end up returning to see them one day: "We chatted for ages. I said 'oh you might end up coming to see us' - and she did." The sense of continuity is a small sign of the broader effort to strengthen local maternity care.

Maternity services at Dr Gray's were downgraded in 2018 due to staff shortages, meaning many expectant mothers in Moray had to travel to Aberdeen for births. Since then, NHS Grampian has been recruiting to rebuild the service. Earlier this year, planned Caesarean sections took place at Dr Gray's for the first time in almost seven years, a milestone in the reintroduction of a full service. The goal is to have a fully consultant-led maternity service in Moray by the end of 2026.

Jane Gill, programme director for NHS Grampian's maternity collaborative, said the aim is to deliver the most advanced, consultant-led service Moray has ever had by the end of 2026. The rebuild is being approached in phases, targeting harder-to-fill roles such as consultant anaesthetists, paediatricians, and obstetricians. Gill emphasized that this is a phased return rather than a switch that flips in 2026, and if opportunities arise to reintroduce services earlier, they will be seized.

Leah said the local upgrade matters beyond her personal story: "I would definitely plan to come here to have my baby. This is where I'm planning on staying, I would not plan on going anywhere else. Improving maternity care locally was one of the big motivating factors for me coming here, to be part of that and grow with the service." For now, the most complex cases will continue to be referred to Aberdeen, but the hospital community hopes the upgraded service will attract more staff and patients alike as the timeline for a full, consultant-led unit draws closer.

The two women—producer and professional—offer a personal lens on a broader health-system push. Leah's ambition to stay in Moray mirrors NHS Grampian's stated objective: to restore a comprehensive maternity offering that can support the community from birth through delivery and postnatal care, with a local, capable team at the helm. The phased plan to rebuild, with milestones like the recent resumption of planned surgical births and the ongoing recruitment drive, illustrates a health system intent on ending a period of reduced local access while maintaining patient safety and quality of care. The coming years will show how quickly the Moray service can grow from a staged enhancement to a fully integrated, consultant-led unit with the capacity to manage the region's maternity needs.