PORTLAND (WGME) — The closing of hospital labor and delivery units has reached a crisis level in Maine, with nine maternity units closing in just the last few years.
For expectant mothers, it means longer drives to see an OB-GYN and longer drives to give birth.
The closing of hospital labor and delivery units has reached a crisis level in Maine, with nine maternity units closing in just the last few years. (WGME)
Now, MaineHealth is considering closing another birthing unit, this one in Damariscotta.
When 8-month-old Veda was born in November, it was a more risky breech delivery.
“By the time I got to the hospital, I had two feet coming out of me,” mother Leah Hurwitz said. “So, we almost didn’t make it to that hospital.”
Hurwitz says had Lincoln Hospital closed its maternity unit, she would have never made it to the next closest one 45 minutes away.
She says it’s imperative to keep Lincoln Hospital’s Miles Campus Birthing Center open.
“You can’t close this,” Hurwitz said. “Women and babies will die. Veda would have died if we didn’t have this service.”
In Damariscotta Friday, Democratic candidate for governor Hannah Pingree said if elected, she’ll call for a one-year moratorium on labor and delivery closures.
“I am calling on the Maine Health Board: do not close the labor and delivery unit at Lincoln Hospital,” Pingree said.
Pingree also plans to convene a maternity care summit to find solutions to reopen birthing centers in Maine.
“Having a safe place to deliver your baby close to your own community should be something that every Maine family can count on,” Pingree said.
The closing of hospital labor and delivery units has reached a crisis level in Maine, with nine maternity units closing in just the last few years. (WGME)
MaineHealth did an assessment of its birthing center at Lincoln Hospital and found while births are actually on the rise in the county, labor and delivery recruitment continues to be an ongoing problem.
“If schools struggled to recruit teachers, we wouldn’t close the classrooms,” Margaret Reynolds of the Miles Delivers Action Coalition said. “We would ask a different question. ‘How do we solve the problem?’”
In the last 10 years, rural Maine hospitals have closed 12 maternity units.
Families in Lincoln County are urging MaineHealth not to close another one.
The closing of hospital labor and delivery units has reached a crisis level in Maine, with nine maternity units closing in just the last few years. (WGME)
In the next two weeks, the board of MaineHealth will decide whether to close the labor and delivery unit at Lincoln Hospital. Parents in the county are asking the board to delay that vote.
“They are being held accountable by nobody but themselves. They can just close the labor and delivery unit,” Moira Rose Richards of the Miles Delivers Action Coalition said. “We’re just asking for a fighting chance. This does not have to happen. There are staffing solutions.”
“Women need to give birth close to home,” Hurwitz said.
MaineHealth says board deliberations on Lincoln Hospital’s birthing unit are confidential and will not be shared publicly.