On the 18th May 2014 our son Daniel Scale was born in Withybush hospital. Our midwife Ellie was brilliant and after a relatively straight forward labour my partner Michelle and I were delighted to welcome him to the world, our seemingly perfectly healthy 9lb 11oz bundle of joy.

Things, however, soon took a turn for the worse. After a routine check-up by one of the midwives on the maternity unit she noticed that Daniel was breathing a little bit fast so he was taken to the Special Care Baby Unit for a check-up.

We arrived shortly after to find that Daniel had to be incubated so that he could have extra oxygen as he was struggling a little.

Unfortunately his problem was worse than first feared and after trying many steps the Consultant decided it was best for him to be intubated.

The sight of our beautiful baby boy inside the incubator with tubes down his throat and nose, wired up to machines is one that will live with Michelle and me for the rest of our lives.

Over the following days Daniel started to show signs of improvement and after nine days in SCBU I am happy to say that we were able to take Daniel home. We count ourselves blessed; we were one of the lucky ones.

Both Michelle and I are fully aware that if it were not for the Doctors, nurses and staff of SCBU our little man would probably not be here with us today.

The care he received all the way from the time we arrived at the maternity unit until the minute we left SCBU nine days later was all that we could have hoped for and more.

In our opinion Daniel received the best possible care. He was watched over and cared for day and night by his guardian angels.

The fact that SCBU is set to be ripped from the people for Pembrokeshire soon is simply unacceptable. I have to admit that I was one of the selfish ones.

I used to read things like this and listen to people talk about the impact of the closure of SCBU and take it for granted.

The importance of a place like SCBU is easily overlooked until you find yourself needing the service they provide.

I cannot say for sure what would have happened to our son Daniel had SCBU not been there for us in Withybush. We were informed that at the time Daniel was admitted to SCBU there were no other beds available in Wales.

Would Daniel have survived the journey to the nearest available incubator? Thankfully we never had to find that out. Others, unfortunately, will have to.

To the decision makers who literally have lives in their hands I say this: The people of Pembrokeshire are more than numbers in your calculator.

Please don’t view us as figures on your spreadsheet. We matter, our future matters, the lives of our future generations MATTER.

SCBU, along with all of the other services that are being stripped bit by bit, are essential to the people of Pembrokeshire.

Based on information supplied by Gareth Scale.