When Julia Taylor-Evans was admitted to hospital, having gone into labour two months early with twins, she was terrified, writes Katherine MacAlister.

Little did she imagine that she would be carried around the country, from Bath to Bristol to Newport in Wales, before the babies were born - because of a lack of special care beds.

The Witney mum says: "The whole thing could have gone horribly wrong. I could have given birth in an ambulance without the proper facilities."

She is now calling for the Government to put more cash into special care baby units.

Julia, who is in her 30s, went into premature labour after admitting herself to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. The staff there put her on drugs to stop the labour because, at 29 weeks' gestation, every additional day is vital to the unborn babies' health.

She stayed there for three days but the doctors said they didn't have any special care baby unit beds and could not risk her going into labour.

The Taylor-Evans family were then given the choice of being admitted to either a London or Liverpool hospital, but felt both were too far.

Julia says: "I could have given birth at the John Radcliffe but then the babies would have had to be whisked straight to another hospital, which is so dangerous and even more of a risk to their lives."

A bed became available in Bath, so Julia was sent there in an ambulance. She spent three days there until they, too, ran out of special care baby unit beds.

Her maternity notes were lost and failed to turn up again, so at each new hospital she had to re-explain her case and maternity history.

A place was then found at Bristol and she was taken there by ambulance. After several days there she was about to be sent home when her waters burst - but there were no beds available in the baby unit.

She recalls: "As I was being taken to the ambulance in a wheelchair a call came through to say the last remaining special care beds in Bath had been taken and I was given the choice of Newport or Exeter instead."

She chose Newport because her husband's parents live in Wales. Soon the ambulance, with an anxious Julia aboard, was roaring at 100mph up the M4, lights flashing and her husband in close pursuit.

She gave birth to Iwan and Bryn a day later, on May 8. They weighed 3lb 6oz and 3lb 12oz respectively.

Every day for the next week, staff at the Newport Hospital tried to get her and the boys transferred back to the John Radcliffe.

Finally, word came through that two beds had been found in Oxford and the family returned home. The twins stayed at the special care unit at the John Radcliffe for six weeks - and the family has nothing but praise for the staff there.

Julia says: "They are doing their best with what they've got. But they are short-staffed and struggling. Why don't the Government see this as a priority?"

Caroline Pepys, the John Radcliffe's nurse manager at the neo-natal unit, says: "The problem is more fundamental than just finances.

"Without more space and nurses we would not be able to cope with any more beds, however much money was thrown at us."