Parents, healthcare professionals, and community members of all ages shared testimony in support of the labor and delivery unit at MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital during a public forum at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta on Tuesday, June 2.

The listening session was one of two held in Lincoln County after rumors have circulated for months that the unit at the Damariscotta hospital was set to close.

The first, held at Boothbay Region Elementary School on Monday, June 1, drew similar comments and attendance from state Reps. Holly Stover, D-Boothbay, and Wayne Farrin, D-Jefferson; state Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, and House District 48 candidate Charlotte Nutt, D-Edgecomb. Democratic gubernatorial candidates Troy Jackson and Shenna Bellows also attended and provided comments during the June 1 forum.

During the June 2 forum, MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital President Cindy Wade said the hospital is reviewing its labor and deliver services due to low birth volume and difficulties with physician retention.

“It is important for me to share that this assessment is not oriented by financial reasons, and the hospital is not at risk of closing,” Wade said.

The average number of births at the hospital over the last three years is 130 births a year, according to a MaineHealth fact sheet distributed to attendees.

The median age in Lincoln County is 51, making it the oldest county in Maine and among the oldest in the country. According to the fact sheet, seven out of 10 expectant mothers in Lincoln County are choosing to deliver at other hospitals.

Wade said the low birthing numbers is what is leading to the low retention of physicians because they want to be busier than the average amount of births currently reflected in Lincoln County.

Over the last three years, Lincoln Hospital has delivered 32% of expected mothers from Lincoln County, Wade said. Of the remaining 68% of births, 18% have required delivery at Maine Medical Center and 50% of Lincoln County expectant mothers have delivered at surrounding locations such as Maine General in Augusta or MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport.

“Our expectant mothers are choosing to deliver at hospitals with more robust, robust services, resources, and higher volumes of deliveries,” Wade said. “In addition, the recruitment challenge has intensified in rural settings, and national statistics tell us that the workforce shortage is only going to worse across the nation.”

Even if birthing services at Lincoln Hospital were discontinued, prenatal, postnatal, and gynecology services would continue at the Damariscotta facility, Wade said.

A decision has not been made about closing the unit, Wade said, and doing so would be a much longer process. She said she and the members of MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital’s local board should have a decision by August.

Joining Wade at the June 2 forum were Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tim Fox, local board Chair Bruce Garren, Chief Nursing Officer Christine Anderson, and Dr. Andrew Russ. Hospital representatives said they would respond to questions asked during the session at a later date.

Members of the audience spoke about the importance of having a local birthing center and expressed skepticism that a final decision was not already made.

Bristol resident Leslie Wolf, who is due to deliver her first child in November, said she had been told the services would be ending at the end of the year, weeks before she is due.

“So my question is, why claim that nothing has been decided yet and hold these sessions when my providers have been told that this closure will happen?” Wolf said.

Wolf expressed concern there would be no providers at the hospital to help her with her delivery if there was a deadline on their positions.

“This is a decision that’s in line with retirees and vacationers, but it’s so antagonistic to families beyond the future,” Wolf said.

Wolf is a part of the leadership team for the Miles Delivers Action Coalition, a grassroots group formed to oppose the proposed closure. Members of the group attended both the June 1 and June 2 meetings.

Margaret Reynolds, another member of the group, asked the board about what recruitment efforts have been made to deal with the poor retention rate, such as incentives for employees if this is not a financial issue. She also requested the hospital share the data that led them to consider closing the unit.

“You say Miles is not closing, but what is a hospital if you can’t give birth care?” Reynolds said. “I want to live in a place where people are born, not where they come to die.”

While holding her baby, Leah Hurwitz, of Round Pond, said if a hospital as close as Lincoln were not available when she gave birth, she and the child would probably both be dead.

In November 2025, Hurwitz discovered her baby was breached and was denied a C-section from Miles, meaning she would have to drive up to an hour away. The night before her scheduled C-section, she went in to labor. She said breached labor occurs more quickly than the regular birthing process, so she needed to move fast.

Hurwitz said in the 10 minutes it took for her to get the hospital, her baby was well on its way. She said Lincoln Hospital’s Dr. Stephanie McCullough’s expertise helped her through the delivery.

“My daughter lost oxygen for seven minutes,” Hurwitz said. “She had to be resuscitated. I spent a lot of time in therapy with one question, what if I had been five minutes later?”

Her daughter had to spend 15 days in the NICU an hour and a half from home. She said it was the most isolated she had ever felt in her entire life.

“I am not a statistic. I am your neighbor and I am telling you directly that closing this department will cost lives,” Hurwitz said.

Many other women shared similar stories about how if they had not lived so close to a hospital with a birthing unit, they might have lost their children and possibly their own lives.

Healthy Kids Executive Director Char Corbett said the potential closing of the labor unit undermines Maine’s child safety and well-being plan by “systematically removing the early low barrier healthcare infrastructure that is relied upon, particularly in rural areas, to keep families safe and secure.”

Corbett said the five-year plan seeks to prevent child welfare intervention by strengthening support systems at the community level.

“When hospital systems close local obstetric units, they decouple prenatal and postpartum modeling and commodity and care,” Corbett said. “They impede plans of safe care coordination, particularly for those babies who are exposed to substances.”

In a rural area like this, Corbett said many families already struggle with disparities such as isolation, transportation, and that this is only an added stress. She said Lincoln County will become a maternity care desert.

Many attendees shared similar thoughts as Corbett, saying rural areas deserve better in regard to healthcare, and if the labor unit would close, it would only decline.

Many audience members shared they had they children at other hospitals, usually preferring their experience at Lincoln Hospital over other facilities.

Mia Branco stood at the microphone and shared she was due to give birth next week. In 2023, she was pregnant with her first child and decided to go to Miles because she was not feeling well. The hospital was busy she said, and so she was sent to the labor and delivery department, where she found out that she had fetal demise in the late second term.

If it weren’t for such a close hospital, she said she probably wouldn’t have even gone for a checkup. She said it shouldn’t be a nice thing for a labor unit to be nearby, but a necessity. Three months later, she was pregnant with her second child.

“It was filled with grieving and fear and trauma, and the entire time I had the team there to help me through that experience,” Branco said.

After the hour and a half of testimony, Wade stood at the microphone again and thanked everyone for sharing. She reiterated a decision as not been made and board needs to follow a process. She said the ultimate decision will not be made until August.

Additional information can be found at tinyurl.com/MHLH-LandD-Forum. For questions, email lincolnfeedback@mainehealth.org.

The Miles Delivers Action Coalition will host a protest at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 7 on the Damariscotta-Newcastle bridge.