The board of MaineHealth has voted to close the birthing unit at Lincoln Hospital.
In a written announcement Thursday, the health system committed to not close any other birthing units for the next two years.
But officials say the roughly 130 annual births at the Damariscotta hospital are too few and they haven't been able to maintain stable staffing despite recruitment efforts.
With the closure of the unit, officials say they'll create a new model in which Lincoln Hospital and Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick will operate as a coordinated team. Patients will be able to receive pre- and postnatal care at Lincoln and Mid Coast will provide labor and delivery services.
"This new model is designed to strengthen women’s health care for Lincoln County over the long term,” said Cindy Wade, president of MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital. “By working as one regional team with MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital, we can continue providing prenatal, postpartum and gynecologic care locally while connecting patients to a larger clinical team when it is time to give birth."
The board's decision comes despite fierce community backlash. A coalition of local mothers urged a delay of the board vote to allow time to find solutions. Gov. Janet Mills, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, and Democratic and Republican state lawmakers had also called on MaineHealth to keep the birthing unit open.
"This is probably one of the most harmful decisions our community will ever see," says Margaret Reynolds, one of the founders of the coalition. "These are people who do not live in our community making decisions that will kill mothers and babies and create a maternity care desert in Lincoln County."
"I am just utterly disappointed that they are turning our hospital into more of a morgue than a hospital," Reynolds added.
Supporters of the birthing unit had sought an emergency court injunction Wednesday to block the board vote. But Lincoln County Court justice Daniel Billings denied the request.
In his decision issued Thursday before the vote Billings said the request assumed that the board would vote to close the center, and there would be no claim if it took some other action.
Billings also said that the plaintiff, a pregnant mother due in January, failed to demonstrate how she would be irreparably injured "simply by a vote to close the center." He said future court proceedings for the lawsuit will be scheduled in due course.
A new state law requires hospitals to give 120 days notice before terminating labor and delivery services. MaineHealth says labor and delivery services will be transferred to Mid Coast hospital as of Dec. 18.
The health system is calling on the next governor and Legislature to bring together stakeholders to identify solutions to the challenges of labor and delivery services in rural communities.
Over the past decade, Maine has lost more than a third of its hospital birthing centers.
