MDI Hospital Will Stop Delivering Babies July 1
Nurses Union Condemns the Closure, Local Legislators Urge Different Outcome
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BAR HARBOR—Joining eight other hospitals who have ended their birthing units in the past ten years, Mount Desert Island Hospital announced, March 27 that it will be closing its birthing unit, July 1. Three of those closures occurred in the past year. There are less than 20 birthing units in hospitals throughout the state.
“This is deeply personal for me — I gave birth to both of my children here,” MDI Hospital President and CEO Christina Maguire said in a statement. “We know how much this service has meant to our community. But we must adapt to ensure the continued strength of our hospital and the care we provide. This decision, while painful, is necessary to ensure the sustainability of high-quality healthcare services for all.”
Declining birth rates were cited as a reason for the choice, which comes as the hospital is in the beginning of multi-year, multi-million dollar expansion plans, which call for a doubling of emergency room space.
Sen. Nicole Grohoski (D-Ellsworth), Rep. Gary Friedmann (D-Bar Harbor) and Rep. Holly Eaton (D-Deer Isle) said in a joint statement that they were unhappy with the news and still hoped for a different outcome, urging residents to help find a different solution.
“This news is upsetting to us and our constituents who rely on MDI Hospital’s exceptional care to help bring happy and healthy babies into one of the most beautiful areas in the state,” they wrote. “Having to travel long distances to give birth safely can be an enormous burden on families during a stressful time – especially those who live on our island communities that aren’t connected to the mainland. While we know this decision was not made lightly, we believe there is still time to preserve the labor and delivery unit while maintaining the strength of MDI Hospital overall. We urge community members to come together, raise their voices and seek a thoughtful solution that maintains access to this service for the people of Mount Desert Island. As legislators and community leaders, we are ready to work with all involved to preserve access to this critical healthcare service.”
Maine birth rates have decreased from 12,589 in 2015 to 11,621 in 2024. The Mount Desert Island hospital numbers have followed that trend. There were nine births this year and 32 in 2024. Ten years ago, approximately 100 babies were born.
According to Maine Division of Public Health Systems data, Bar Harbor’s resident births have fluctuated between 37 and 26 between 2014 and 2023, with the lowest amount of babies born in 2020 (19). Similarly resident births for Mount Desert Island, Trenton, Frenchboro, Cranberry Isles, and Swan’s Island have decreased from 98 in 2014 to 75 in 2023. Hancock County resident births have decreased from 489 to 383 in that same time period.
The Maine State Nurses Union has criticized the move and asked for state lawmakers to invest in access to healthcare in rural communities.
“Union nurses at Mount Desert Island Hospital (MDIH) are fiercely critical of today’s announcement by CEO Chrissi Maguire that she will close the hospital’s obstetrics (OB) department on July 1, 2025,” announced Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC) Thursday afternoon.
“MDIH administrators’ decision rips critical healthcare services from rural working families in our community,” said Janice Horton, RN, who is a 32-year veteran of MDIH’s OB department. “This devastating, short-sighted decision was made by administrators without any input from or dialogue with nurses and caregivers. Nurses are deeply concerned about the permanent, damaging effects this decision will have on families MDIH is supposed to serve in Bar Harbor and surrounding towns and outer islands.”
Mount Desert Island and Maine is not alone when it comes to losing birthing units.
“This closure follows a rash of OB closures in Maine, including at York Hospital, Northern Maine Medical Hospital, Calais Community Hospital, Downeast Community Hospital, Waldo Hospital, and the entirety of Inland Hospital,” the union stated.
Between 2011 and 2023, 217 United States hospitals have shuttered labor and delivery departments.
“Our union stands with the dedicated OB nurses at MDIH and condemns this closure in the strongest possible terms,” said Cokie Giles, RN and president of the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA). “This is an abject failure by the hospital’s administration, particularly CEO Chrissi Maguire. For the good of this community and of our state, MDIH’s OB department must remain open.”
MDIH nurses will hold a community meeting on the closure of their hospital’s OB department this Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Mount Desert Island YWCA (36 Mt Desert St, Bar Harbor, ME 04609). Community members are encouraged to attend.
According to CNN in 2023, “Data released last fall by the infant and maternal health nonprofit March of Dimes also shows that more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age across 1,119 US counties are living in ‘maternity care deserts,’ meaning their counties have no hospitals offering obstetric care, no birth centers, and no obstetric providers.”
The island hospital has had a long history of improvements related to maternity healthcare.
Back in 1985, then hospital president James A. Mroch led the hospital in a search for an obstetrician to replace Dr. Nancy Stewart, who had been a staff member for twenty years. The hospital was undergoing renovations then, and a priority of those past renovations had been a maternity wing according to a 1985 press release in the Ellsworth American.
James Carroll was the first baby born in the hospital’s then-new brick, four-room maternity ward back in 1939. Mary, his mother, had been born there, too, when the hospital was called the Bar Harbor Medical and Surgical Hospital back in 1910. Though the hospital began in the late 1800s, the maternity ward was not opened until 1914, thanks to the contributions of Emma Baker Kennedy, a summer visitor. The hospital’s 120th anniversary was in 2017.
That community connection and dismay was palpable as the hospital’s press release hit social media, with many wondering what the hospital’s decision would mean for families and pregnant women on the island, but also for women on the outer islands who already have to ferry onto Mount Desert Island (or come in via private boat) during their pregnancy.
Northern Light Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth opened the Dixon Family Birthing Center in January 2023. However, travel time to Ellsworth from Mount Desert Island and those outer islands can vary and take well over an hour depending on traffic congestion, season, and time of day.
“We are committed to doing all we can to support mothers and families,” Maguire said, Thursday. “With new supportive maternal health services, specialized emergency providers, and a unit ready for urgent deliveries, this difficult transition will not deter us from our mission to deliver compassionate, community-focused care.”
Though there will no birthing unit, the hospital said it will have a birthing room in the expanded emergency department, and coordinate with other hospitals to maintain staff knowledge regarding labor and delivery.
“Plans are in place for MDI Hospital’s emergency care staff to rotate through partner hospitals to maintain their labor and delivery competencies,” the hospital’s press release said.
The hospital will also possibly have a program that is expected to “guide expectant mothers through prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care—offering personalized support and care coordination.”
MDI Hospital will schedule a town hall meeting about the changes. Currently, people can sign up to learn about that meeting and/or ask a question for the hospital’s as-of-yet unscheduled town hall meeting, here.
Please note, while we have previously published the press releases (linked below) today, we’ve been holding off on this story until we’d heard back from the nurse’s union and the hospital had released its town hall meeting time, which was believed to be released this afternoon. As of 4:30 p.m., it has not. We will update this story and include that information in a future article once we have it.
This article was updated at 4:50 p.m. to include a statement from the legislators. It was updated below at 5:20 to include the hospital’s town hall event.
UPDATE
The event reads:
“For decades, Mount Desert Island Hospital has been honored to provide labor and delivery services, welcoming new lives into the community and supporting families through one of life’s most significant moments. The Hospital would like to start by thanking the amazing, dedicated, and exceptional caregivers who provide high-quality, patient-centered care to our community through our labor and delivery service. Their commitment to service, dedication, and compassion provided to our patients and families over the years has made a significant impact for so many.
“MDI Hospital announced March 27th that it will close its Labor and Delivery Unit effective July 1st, citing a dramatic decline in births. The difficult decision comes after a comprehensive review of patient safety, staff readiness, and long-term viability.
”We invite community members to join us via Zoom or in person at the Jesup Memorial Library from 4-5PM on Thursday, April 3rd to hear directly from hospital leadership about this difficult decision.”
To register:
https://www.jesuplibrary.org/events/hospitaltownhall
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To read the hospital’s press release.
To read the nurse’s union press release.
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I was certain that MDI would hold its values firm amidst closures in other places. The labor and delivery was a special place, known to profess quality of health over quantity of births, to respect and welcome midwives, and offer care and expertise including the best milkshakes anywhere: It’s devastating, for women, for children, for the future of healthcare.
Did not the same thing happen in the old days when the rich denied access to the hospital for the local communities maternity care.
It feels similar today. Too much wealth is wasted in this country by a few billionaires. If they were taxed the outrageous wealth would to shared.
We would not have to send 20 parents on a hard slog to Ellsworth with water breaking over the bow.