Massena Hospital. File photo: p4hinc.com
Jun 25, 2020 —
Massena’s hospital is closing its birthing center next month, another casualty of the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. St. Lawrence Health System, which owns the hospital, is referring patients to its maternity program in Potsdam. But the decision has raised concerns from maternal health advocates who say the closure could limit choices for expectant mothers.
Five years ago, Anna Sommer was pregnant with her first child and looking around for an OB-GYN in the North Country. She made her first appointment with an obstetrician at Canton-Potsdam Hospital and says it wasn’t a good fit.
"I felt like she didn’t really listen to what I had to say at all, and it made me anxious about staying with that practitioner for the duration of my pregnancy and then for the birth," said Sommer.
Sommer knew she wanted a hospital birth but wanted to avoid a Cesarean section, which can carry more risk than vaginal birth and lead to postpartum complications. New York Department of Health statistics show that Canton Potsdam-Hospital has one of the highest C-section rates in the state.
After talking to some friends who had kids, she decided to go see Barbara Hillis, a certified nurse midwife at Tender Touches Birthing Center at Massena Memorial, which hadn’t yet merged with St. Lawrence Health System.
"The first visit I thought was great. She was very much willing to listen. She seemed very laid back and very easy to work with," she said.
In June of 2016, after 48 hours of labor, Sommer gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
“I felt like the nurses and Barb [Hillis] intervened when they needed to, and stepped back and didn’t do anything when they didn’t need to. It was just a very empowering experience for a first-time mother and first-time pregnancy," said Sommer.
But Sommer worries that this model of care will be available to fewer women now in the North Country. Massena’s hospital was acquired by St. Lawrence Health System this year. And now SLHS is shutting down the Massena birthing center after July 12.
David Bender is CEO of Massena Hospital and says he hates to blame everything on the fall-out from COVID-19, but that’s what is prompting the closure.
“The pandemic in April cut our revenue in half, and we’re slowly crawling back out of that," he said. "But when that happens, there’s just no margin for error and there’s no margin for programs that you could maybe sustain in good times.”
Additionally, he says births at Massena have declined almost in half over the last decade. So far this year they’ve delivered 53 babies, barely two a week.
“We didn’t come to it easily at all. It just became a matter of the volumes weren’t there to support ongoing operations at a good, high quality," said Bender.
Sommer and other advocates say it’s not just about financials. They understand hospitals have a bottom line to consider. It’s also about the way the announcement was made — in a press release over the weekend and with little notice to patients.
"When the announcement came out on Saturday that Tender Touches was closing, I felt really strongly that it was important to say something about that and to not just let that pass without speaking out publicly about it," said Sommer.
Hillis, the Massena midwife, did not return a request for comment, but Sommer rallied her supporters and penned a letter to the editor in North Country Now, signed by 65 people, underlining the importance of midwife-led care.
“It’s is not a lucrative business," said Desiree Parish, who’s been a doula in the North Country for the last five years and is studying to be a certified midwife. She's attended births as a patient advocate at both Massena Hospital and CPH.
Parish says it’s about more than just having a place to give birth, but how mothers are treated during birth and the choices they are empowered to make, whether that’s a natural birth or through surgical delivery.
“My goal is that women feel like they have a choice," said Parish. "They understand all their options and they make that choice for themselves. What’s happening is, with this closing, it’s taking away an entire choice for women.”
St. Lawrence Health System’s David Bender says midwife services will continue at Canton-Potsdam Hospital. CPH employs its own full-time certified nurse midwife and has hired a second one. He says they’re also working on finalizing an agreement to get Hillis admitting privileges to CPH to continue working with her patients.
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June 25, 2020 at 05:00PM
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Closure of Massena's birthing center raises concerns among maternal health advocates - North Country Public Radio
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