Here are seven hospitals and systems ending or diverting labor and delivery services since Feb. 27:
- Gresham, Ore.-based Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center is continuing to divert patients away from its labor and delivery services even as the Oregon Health Authority questions the safety of doing so.
- Palomar Medical Center Poway (Calif.), part of Escondido, Calif.-based Palomar Health, will close its labor and delivery unit in June, at least temporarily.
- A combination of a loss of pediatricians, changing demographics and some of the strictest abortion laws in the country is forcing Sandpoint, Idaho-based Bonner General Hospital to stop delivering babies.
- The only hospital in Manitowoc, Wis., a city of nearly 35,000 — Froedtert Holy Family Memorial Hospital — will stop all obstetrics care beginning June 1.
- Rochester, N.H.-based Frisbie Memorial Hospital will be allowed to discontinue labor and delivery services after a $2.75 million settlement agreement.
- Citing a lack of provider coverage, Ocean Springs, Miss.-based Singing River Health System said it will end obstetric services, which include labor and delivery, at Singing River Gulfport (Miss.), at least temporarily.
- Astria Toppenish (Wash.) Hospital is one of many rural hospitals closing labor and delivery care due to costs, creating maternity deserts in areas that need care most.