Ask anyone what's most important when it comes to the birth of their child and the answer will probably be that the little one arrives safe and well - where that happens exactly is likely secondary.
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So, on one hand, a lot of residents in the Yarrawonga-Mulwala region might not be too concerned that birthing services in the towns' hospital will cease from January next year. If your baby can be born safely in Wangaratta, less than an hour down the road, what's the big deal, right?
Well, plenty, according to Rural Doctors Association of Australia president John Hall, who said "there is often a flow-on effect" once birthing services are removed.
"Maternity services are the linchpin that hold rural hospitals together and often means the hospital operating service is the next to go," he told The Border Mail, in a rather grim warning.
If that was the case, it would be a travesty for Moira Shire's biggest hospital, which also services a significant number of people from the NSW side of the border given its proximity to Mulwala.
Unlike some regional centres in Victoria, Yarrawonga's population is booming, with the most recent census in 2016 showing the number people in the town had grown by more than 2000, from 5730 to 7848 in the previous 10 years.
Logic says that if your population is growing at that rate, having a hospital which can accommodate birthing makes sense.
Further up the Murray River, Border residents are familiar with birthing services shifting, with about 30,000 babies having been born at Wodonga hospital since the Mercy birthing unit in Albury shut in the late 1990s. The relocation of maternity services to Albury is back on the radar but the fact it's taken more than two decades to get back to this point shows just how tricky that process can be.
Yarrawonga residents have been engaged in a years-long debate about whether a bridge across Lake Mulwala should follow the "green" or "grey" route but fighting to keep maternity services in the area would seem a cause really worth spitting the dummy over.