A baby was born at Copley Hospital in Morrisville the morning of Mother's Day this year.
Hours later, hospital staff who provided care for the mother and newborn gathered with dozens of parents, grandparents and children less than a mile away, calling to prevent that labor and delivery unit from closing.
The hospital board and president have said they’re considering closing the unit as a way to save the hospital money.
“It’s a community service — it’s critical,” said Marty McMahan, of Worcester, whose two kids were born at Copley.
“This is wrong,” said Kay Gould, of Bradford, who came to the rally with her daughter and grandchildren, also born at Copley.
“To take it away from women in the community, to make them now drive to wherever when they may be in crisis feels shameful,” she said.
Many spoke about how the hospital has provided access to care. A woman from Plainfield said she drove an hour to have her two babies at Copley. A woman from Lowell said her home birth was only possible because of having Copley nearby, where she had weekly monitoring before her birth because of a cord abnormality and days of care after, when her baby was sick.
A doula, Mary Kate Shanahan, said she has worked with clients at every hospital in the state, and Copley stands out for its care.
“We love working with the clinical team there,” she said. “It would be a tragedy if this birth center closed.”
The hospital has delivered between 146 and 197 babies each year over the past decade, according to clinical staff. Hospital leadership has said these numbers are too low to be financially viable.
“There is actually capacity for us to do more births here at Copley, and we should,” said Mary Lou Kopas, a midwife at Copley.
She cited data from the U.S. Census Bureau, that Lamoille County’s population is growing, and has the second-highest birth rate in the state.
“Without a birthing center to encourage young families, I worry about the long-term impact on this community,” said Dr. Steven Soriano, a pediatrician who moved to Elmore a few years ago, in part to have access to the birthing center.
He says he knows several of the board members at the hospital.
"I know they're going to make the right decision — I'm hoping that they that they do," he said.
In a message posted to their website last week, the hospital administration and board wrote no decisions have been made about the future of the birthing center.
