The decline in births is causing some smaller hospitals to consider closing their obstetrics units. Research suggests they begin to have too few births to maintain the services and care quality levels required.

Source: Rural hospitals weigh keeping obstetric units when births decline

Too few births leads to staffing issues (too few babies for full-time obstetrics staff), financial issues associated with running a lesser used service, often paid at lower Medicaid rates, and indications that hospitals that handle few births are more likely to have difficulties with birth complications.

This problem will only grow as the fertility rate continues to decline and will be hard on smaller hospitals where the volume of births is too low to keep maternity units in operation.

This problem has been occuring for years. When I was born, the family physician was the doctor who delivered me – and I vaguely remember my Mom telling me late in her life that she had been in labor, on a gurney, in a hallway, as they did not have a room available. Today, babies are typically born in an obstetric unit with a team of specialists. Times change.

Coldstreams