HOULTON, Maine — A group of northern Maine nurses are fighting to save an Aroostook County birthing unit slated to close next week.
Houlton Regional Hospital’s chief operating officer, Gina Brown, unexpectedly announced that the labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum department would close on May 2. The unit’s 13 nurses, who said they love caring for the women and babies, called on the community to help keep the unit open.
In response, more than 200 people packed into a town hall meeting at the John A. Millar Civic Center in Houlton two weeks ago to voice concerns about the hospital’s decision. And since the town hall, the nurses have collected 1,400 signatures on a petition that pushes administrators to keep the department open, according to Todd Ricker, labor representative for the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee that represents nearly 70 nurses at the Houlton hospital.
“We love what we do and we are absolutely heartbroken and devastated that right before our busiest time of the year, it will close,” labor and delivery nurse Natalie Rush said.
Rush asked people attending the town hall earlier this month to sign the petition.
With the region’s only remaining hospital obstetrical units in Presque Isle and Caribou, expectant parents have few other options, and women living in communities such as Danforth or Wytopitlock are now 90 minutes away from a hospital birthing center.
“I work with women in Danforth. I care for people way beyond there in Wytopitlock, and they are relying on Houlton Regional Hospital for their care,” pediatric nurse practitioner Dana Lincoln said during the April 9 town hall. “I do fear there will be deaths, there’s no denying that.”
Brown was not immediately available on Tuesday to respond to the specific questions related to the petition and next week’s closing.
In a previous Bangor Daily News interview, Brown said that it was a painful decision, but over the past several years, like many rural hospitals in Maine and across the nation, OB volume has steadily declined.
In addition to the petition, the nurses have planned a candlelight vigil at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, in Houlton’s Riverfront Park, 49 North St.; near the walking bridge as they continue their fight to convince the hospital’s administration to cancel plans to close the unit.
The group that turned out for the town hall included health professionals, parents and their children. Many of the attendees were part of the region’s Amish community.
“If the unit closes, in my opinion there will be dead mothers and dead babies,” emergency physician Marty Hrynick said at the time, adding he delivered his first baby in 1970.
According to the nurses’ union, administrators said they will absorb the department’s 13 nurses into other hospital vacancies. But hospital administrators have not confirmed that or explained what positions the nurses could fill.
