DAMARISCOTTA — Margaret Reynolds and other mothers are calling on their local hospital to slow down while making a decision on whether to keep their local birthing unit open.
“If recruiting firefighters became difficult, we wouldn’t close a fire station,” she said. “If schools struggled to recruit teachers we wouldn’t close the classrooms.”
Reynolds, an organizer of the Miles Delivers Action Coalition, gathered with others in Damariscotta Friday at an event organized by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree.
She too called on MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital to keep the delivery and birthing unit open and pledged that if elected governor, she would convene a summit in her first month in office to consider the issue statewide.
According to MaineHealth, 11 hospital birthing units have closed across Maine since 2015.
Kathleen Taggersell, vice president of communications and public affairs at MaineHealth, said the hospital system has been unable to recruit a full time or part time OBGYN at Lincoln Hospital since 2020 “despite extensive recruitment efforts.”
She also cited “low birth volumes, call burden, anesthesia and pediatric support, and the broader workforce pressures affecting rural maternity care” as reasons they are considering the closure.
Taggersell said no decision has been made, but members of the action coalition say a final decision is expected Aug. 6.
For her part, Pingree said she understands the challenges of expectant mothers who live in rural areas. As a resident of North Haven, an island 12 miles off the coast, she spent several nights in a hotel room on the mainland while awaiting the birth of her two children.
She said Friday she knows many rural families don’t have the resources to do the same.
“Having a safe place to deliver your baby, close to your own community shouldn’t be a matter of luck or good weather,” she said. “It should be something that every Maine family can count on.”
Pingree, who is running against Republican Bobby Charles and independent Rick Bennett in the Nov. 3 election, laid out her plan to address the issue.
She said she would call for a yearlong moratorium on labor and delivery unit closures to give the state time to figure out solutions.
She said Maine will receive about $150 million a year in federal funds to support rural hospitals, but current rules only allow about 15% of that to be used for direct services.
Pingree — whose mother is U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-1st District) —said she would work with the congressional delegation to change those rules.
She also warned that if birthing units continue to close, it will put pressure on other hospitals to absorb the new patients.
“They will strain the staff and the beds that were never built to carry the entire state’s maternity care load,” she said.
Reynolds, who has met with hospital leadership on the issue, said she’s hoping they will consider alternatives to a full closure.
“Miles would be the fifth maternity unit to close in Maine in just two years,” she said. “Labor and delivery units all over the state already have wait lists.”