Hospital managers will be meeting today to get an update on how recruitment is going for a maternity unit.
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust needs to recruit specialist nurses to work at the special care baby unit at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.
If the nurses cannot be found, the trust will downgrade the unit to a midwife-led one dealing with between 400 and 500 straight-forward births every year.
More than 2,000 women who would have normally used the unit would face a journey to hospitals with specialist consultants, which include the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, Worthing Hospital and Eastbourne District General Hospital.
A trust spokeswoman said: "No decision is being made at the meeting on the future of the unit at the hospital. It is basically a progress report.
"When a final decision does have to be made, it will be done at a public board meeting."
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