As Rural Hospitals Shutter Maternity Wards, Urban Ones Follow
High costs, hospital staffing woes and falling birth rates are being blamed for the ongoing disappearance of maternal care units in US cities of all sizes.
Empty infant beds sit at Madera Community Hospital in Madera, California, which closed in January 2023.
Photographer: Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Michelle Cubbon had her first child, a boy, at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown, New York, a town of more than 100,000 in the middle of Long Island, where the median household income is $143,789 and many residents commute to white-collar jobs in Manhattan. She and her husband, who was also born at St. Catherine, are planning now for a second child. But when she tried to schedule an appointment with her obstetrician, she discovered that the hospital’s maternity unit — a cornerstone of their town for more than a half a century — was shutting down in February 2024.
“I’m back to square one,” said Cubbon.