Maternity units are turning away dozens of women in labour because they have no room, figures show.

Six NHS hospitals refused to accept expectant mothers at least once last year.

The figures were obtained by the Conservatives under the Freedom of Information Act.

They show that the consultant-led unit at Conquest Hospital in Hastings was forced to close its doors to pregnant women on 41 occasions in 2007.

The unit at Eastbourne District General, which faces losing its consultant-led services, shut 31 times over the same 12-month period.

Mums-to-be requiring their services during the closures were sent to alternative hospitals instead.

Further investigations by The Argus revealed maternity services at the Princess Royal at Haywards Heath were closed to new admissions on 17 occasions last year while the figure for the Royal Sussex County in Brighton was five. On one occasion, last December, both units were temporarily closed.

St Richard's Hospital in Chichester and Crowborough Birthing Centre each closed on one occasion last year, while Worthing Hospital's maternity unit did not close at all.

Thousands have protested about local shake-ups that could result in downgrading or closure of midwife-led and consultant-led maternity units.

Local health bosses have proposed that two out of the three consultant-led maternity units in Haywards Heath, Chichester and Worthing should be downgraded to midwife-led services.

Nigel Waterson, Tory MP for Eastbourne, who is fighting against the downgrading of services in his constituency, said: "If there ever was a case for downgrading maternity at Eastbourne, this finally puts it to rest and shows what utter folly it would be to close full maternity at Eastbourne with so many expectant mums being turned away under the existing arrangements."

Julia Evans, 37, from Patcham, gave birth at home hours after claiming she was told by doctors at Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital in August last year that she was not in labour.

Ms Evans said: "They should be providing more maternity services, not cutting them. All this talk of centralising maternity units is complete nonsense. People want services at their local hospitals.

"There is still a great demand for all those units and that is not going to change.

"If expectant mums are already being turned away, it's common sense that cutting services will just exacerbate that."

A spokesman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals denied Mrs Evans was refused admission.

Nationally, the Tories said 42 per cent of NHS Trusts providing maternity services had to turn away women in labour last year because they were full.

Almost one in ten Trusts reported closing more than ten times.

The figures reveal that of the Trusts that closed, 74 per cent had more than 3,000 births last year, the minimum needed for an "efficient" service, according to the Government.

Of the Trusts that closed more than ten times, 78 per cent had more than 3,000 births.

Small maternity units reported few closures. Of the Trusts that did not close, 45 per cent had less than 3,000 births last year.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, said: "The Government's plans to close maternity units when services are already overstretched fly in the face of common sense.

"Labour are fixated with cutting smaller, local maternity services and concentrating them in big units.

"Women don't want to have to travel miles to give birth, and they certainly don't want to have to travel even further because they're turned away by the hospital of their choice."

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