HOULTON, Maine — Houlton Regional Hospital will shut down its labor and delivery services next month, leaving Aroostook County women with fewer places to give birth.
The unit will close on May 2 at 7 a.m., Chief Operating Officer Gina Brown said Thursday.
It’s the latest in a slew of labor and delivery unit closures around Maine, sparked by falling birth rates and other operating challenges facing hospitals. Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent ended those services two years ago. More recently, Belfast’s MaineHealth Waldo Hospital closed its maternity ward on April 1, and Mount Desert Island Hospital said it will shut down its unit on July 1. With Houlton closing, Aroostook women will have to travel to Presque Isle or Caribou to give birth in a hospital.
“This is a very painful decision for us, but over the past several years, like many rural hospitals in Maine and across the nation, we have watched our OB volume steadily decline,” Brown said. “And although our nurses and providers have gone above and beyond to maintain the service, our volumes are making it impossible to do so.”
Five years ago, the hospital delivered somewhere around 135 babies a year, she said. Births have been declining ever since, with numbers now at around 77 each year.
The closure affects only the hospital’s delivery services. A physician’s office offering obstetrics and gynecology services will remain open, according to Houlton Regional’s social media post on Thursday.
The hospital believes closing labor and delivery is in the best interest of patients and staff, the post stated.
Houlton Regional will work with Cary Medical Center in Caribou and Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital in Presque Isle to make sure patients are well taken care of, Brown said.
“We will be working very diligently to connect them to OB services at the facilities of their choosing,” she said.
