\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAt least ten hospital birthing centers in Maine have closed in the last decade, raising many concerns for those who are left who help women through birth.Now, another service for women is closing.Downeast OB\/GYN in Bangor announced Friday that the practice will be closing, as of July 2, 2026.Dr. Christopher Rumsey said patients will receive written notification of the closure in the coming weeks.Rumsey said the practice recently lost two physician partners and a midwife, which left him on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\u201cAs much as I wish I could continue, this level of coverage is simply not sustainable long term. While there are many factors that contributed to this incredibly difficult decision, the primary challenge has been the inability to recruit new physicians into the private practice setting,\u201d Rumsey said in a post on Facebook.Rumsey took over the practice on Stillwater Avenue in 2019 and says his plan had been to run the practice until he retired.Rumsey said he will be joining Women\u2019s Healthcare of Maine at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center. He said the other remaining members of his team are still determining their next steps.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tBANGOR, Maine \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
At least ten hospital birthing centers in Maine have closed<\/a> in the last decade, raising many concerns<\/a> for those who are left who help women through birth.<\/p>\n Now, another service for women is closing.<\/p>\n Downeast OB\/GYN in Bangor announced Friday that the practice will be closing, as of July 2, 2026.<\/p>\n Dr. Christopher Rumsey said patients will receive written notification of the closure in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n Rumsey said the practice recently lost two physician partners and a midwife, which left him on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.<\/p>\n \u201cAs much as I wish I could continue, this level of coverage is simply not sustainable long term. While there are many factors that contributed to this incredibly difficult decision, the primary challenge has been the inability to recruit new physicians into the private practice setting,\u201d Rumsey said in a post on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rumsey took over the practice on Stillwater Avenue in 2019 and says his plan had been to run the practice until he retired.<\/p>\n Rumsey said he will be joining Women\u2019s Healthcare of Maine at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center. He said the other remaining members of his team are still determining their next steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least ten hospital birthing centers in Maine have closed in the last decade, raising many concerns for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[4528,43551,231551,15199,275,231557,231547,231548,149800,10414,2310,231556,97,252,5123,231555,253,37914,10482,231549,74924,149803,27280,14971,136565,231552,128343,10513,231554,70936,1975,231553,14972,11270,231550],"class_list":["post-510404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-womens-health","tag-bangor","tag-birthing-center","tag-call","tag-day","tag-downeast-ob","tag-downeast-ob-gyn","tag-dr-christopher-rumsey","tag-eastern-maine-medical-center","tag-facebook","tag-friday","tag-gyn","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-news","tag-health-service","tag-healthcare","tag-hour","tag-maine","tag-maine-doctor","tag-maine-health","tag-maine-hospitals","tag-maine-news","tag-maines-total-coverage","tag-midwife","tag-news-for-women","tag-northern-light","tag-practice","tag-rumsey","tag-rural-hospitals","tag-week","tag-where-to-give-birth","tag-wmtw","tag-woman","tag-womens-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}