A pregnant woman was taken on a 275-mile trip by ambulance to give birth to her premature baby because there were no neonatal cots available closer to her home.

Clare Knight, 30, from Newhaven, East Sussex, went into labour almost four months prematurely. No neonatal cots were available at her local hospital in Brighton, but one was located at St Mary's in Manchester, and she was transported there by ambulance, accompanied by midwives and paramedics.

Her son, Harrison, was born at the Manchester hospital, where he remains in neonatal intensive care.

Greg Curl, 27, the baby's father, said more money should be invested in neonatal care. "The government says it's putting £70m into it, and we welcome that because anything that can be done to prevent others going through what we did has to be good news.

"But I think more money needs to be spent. On the way to Manchester, one of the midwives told me that moving people to other hospitals in the area, like London and Portsmouth, was not uncommon." The couple returned home when their older son became ill and now have a 550-mile round-trip to see their baby.

A spokeswoman for the neonatal charity Bliss said similar events were happening at least once a month.

Ian Keeber, of the Brighton and Sussex University NHS Trust said all the beds at the time of Harrison's birth were full, which was the case 95% of the time.