MaineHealth will close Lincoln Hospital’s labor and delivery unit in December

The MaineHealth board of trustees voted Thursday to close the labor and delivery unit of MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta after months of discussion and community pushback .

The unit is set to close on Dec. 18, and services will be moved to MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, according to a statement from the health system.

The closure will mark the 12th maternity unit in Maine that has shuttered since 2015, leaving Lincoln County, Waldo County and Sagadahoc County without hospitals that deliver babies. The decision means fewer than half of Maine’s 34 hospitals will offer a place to give birth.

Gov. Janet Mills, U.S. Rep Chellie Pingree, all three gubernatorial candidates and others had called on the hospital to delay the decision and preserve birthing services in Damariscotta.

The board promised in its statement that the health system would not close any additional labor and delivery units in the next two years, and called on state lawmakers and the next governor to convene a group of hospitals, doctors and others to discuss solutions to the challenges facing labor and delivery units in rural communities.

The health system has said the closure is necessary because of low birth rates and difficulty recruiting staff.

“Providing maternity care requires a team of physicians, nurses, anesthesia professionals and support staff who are consistently available to respond to routine deliveries and life-threatening emergencies at any hour,” the Thursday press release said. “Following its assessment, management concluded it could not identify a staffing model capable of providing safe, reliable care over the long term.”

The health system described the change as moving toward a “new regional model” that links OB-GYN services at its hospitals in Damariscotta and in Brunswick. Lincoln Hospital will continue offering prenatal and postpartum care — including ultrasounds, fertility services and postpartum counseling — and will expand gynecologic outpatient and surgical services. But the hospital will not have the staff to offer labor and delivery services, and patients will be sent to the Brunswick hospital, or another of their choosing, to deliver their babies.

The vote comes after months of tension between MaineHealth and community organizers. Miles Delivers Action Coalition, a grassroots advocacy group, formed after MaineHealth began discussing plans to close the maternity unit earlier this year. The group has publicly challenged the hospital’s reasoning for closing the unit, met repeatedly with MaineHealth leadership to argue against the pending closure and organized multiple protests, including a demonstration in Portland days before the scheduled vote.

The group released a press release following the decision pledging to use “every available legal, regulatory, legislative, political, and community avenue to protect patients and maternity care in Lincoln County.”

“A hospital where you can no longer be born is hardly a hospital at all,” the group wrote in the statement.

A pregnant woman from Lincoln County who is due to give birth in January filed a lawsuit , with the support of Miles Delivers Action Coalition, against MaineHealth on Wednesday in an attempt to stop the board from voting on the closure.

A judge denied the request for an emergency preliminary injunction on Thursday, saying the lawsuit assumed that the board would vote to close the unit, even though the final vote had not been made by the time the lawsuit was filed. The lawsuit also asked for a permanent injunction to prevent the hospital from closing its maternity unit, which remains outstanding.

Democratic candidate for governor Hannah Pingree criticized the decision in a Thursday press release.

“MaineHealth had a choice, and I believe they made the wrong one today,” she wrote. “Moms, babies and families in Lincoln County will suffer for it. Women will still be giving birth, just farther from home, with less time to spare and fewer safety nets if something goes wrong.”

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.