RNs protest obstetrics closures

A nationwide problem also strikes Maine

By Lucy Diavolo and Michelle Morris

National Nurse magazine - April | May | June 2025 Issue

Vital obstetrics services are in crisis in Maine. On March 27, Mount Desert Island Hospital (MDIH) in Bar Harbor, a town about an hour southeast of Bangor, announced that it would be closing its obstetrics (OB) department on July 1. A week later, Houlton Regional Hospital (HRH) in Houlton, a town near the Canadian border announced that it would be shutting down its Labor, Delivery, Recovery, and Postpartum (LDRP) unit on May 2. MDIH and Houlton nurses are represented by Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC).

These announcements follow a rash of OB closures in Maine, including at York Hospital, Northern Maine Medical Hospital, Calais Community Hospital, Downeast Community Hospital, Waldo Hospital, and the entirety of Inland Hospital.

MDIH and Houlton nurses mobilized as soon as they heard the news, voicing their opposition to the closures, collecting signatures for petitions, and holding community meetings. On March 30, MDIH nurses organized a standing-room-only community meeting. In May, nurses, MSNA members from across the state, and community members lined Main Street in Bar Harbor, chanting and waving signs calling on MDIH to cancel the closure of the OB unit. 

More than 1,100 people signed a public petition demanding that MDIH reverse its shortsighted decision. MDIH’s management, led by CEO Chrissi Maguire, did not consult with community members or the bedside nurses who care for the hospitals’ patients before announcing the obstetrics department would close on July 1.

“MDIH administrators’ decision rips critical health care services from rural working families in our community,” said Janice Horton, RN, who is a 32-year veteran of MDIH’s OB department. “This devastating, shortsighted decision was made by administrators without any input from or dialogue with nurses and caregivers. Nurses are deeply concerned about the permanent, damaging effects this decision will have on families MDIH is supposed to serve in Bar Harbor and surrounding towns and outer islands.”

“Who is going to hold these private hospitals accountable for making decisions that will eventually kill people?” asked Erin Oberson, RN in the obstetrics department at MDIH. “You cannot expect to end vital services, especially in rural Maine communities, without risking people dying as a result of lack of access to care. We will hold the MDIH administration responsible for these terrible, adverse outcomes, and our governor and legislature as well, for failing to protect families and babies when we so clearly have a maternal health care crisis on our hands.” 

In April, nearly 170 miles north of Bar Harbor, nurses and community members held a packed town hall meeting to address news about Houlton Regional Hospital’s plans to permanently close the LDRP department and what it would mean for patients seeking OB care in their region. 

“The decision to close our LDRP unit was made without including obstetrics medical professionals who know first hand the experiences encountered that require OB emergency intervention,” said Jayme Bither Hovey, RN and a nurse for 10 years in HRH’s LDRP unit. “Without maternal OB services in Houlton, mothers and babies will travel over an hour to receive care. Some will travel and deliver without any issues. But others won’t be as fortunate. Those patients that deliver quickly, run into problems during labor, or suffer from an OB emergency and can’t get OB intervention will be the ones that we tried to prevent from suffering by keeping the LDRP unit open.”

“We are scared for women in our community, and we are fighting for you to have the best maternal care possible,” said Hovey.

Lucy Diavolo and Michelle Morris are communications specialists for National Nurses United.