Last week, after the LincolnHealth Miles hospital advisory board met behind closed doors and voted to suspend birthing services, hospital officials and board members declined to comment.

However, Miles Delivers, a citizens coalition opposing the move, sent out a press release confirming the closure vote.

The final decision is scheduled to be made by MaineHealth’s Portland board Aug. 6. Unlike the other four Maine hospitals that have closed maternity units this year, the Miles opposition group is not relying on heartfelt emotional arguments; they are mounting a serious campaign.

Margaret Reynolds, an opposition leader, said the movement was not political. “This is just a bunch of neighbors getting together to urge the hospitals to continue to serve their customers,” she said. But a drive through Damariscotta sure looks like a political campaign is underway.

Across the street from the Miles waterfront campus is a billboard noting that the hospital receives more than $750,000 in property tax exemption. There are pink-trimmed yard signs along major and minor streets urging viewers to “Save Miles Maternity.” They claim more than 10,000 citizens have signed a petition opposing the closure and urged local town governments to adopt resolutions opposing closure.

The Miles closure proposal and its opposition have earned wide press and television coverage. In addition, the mothers group has met with top state political leaders.

Reynolds said she met with top Democratic Party leaders, Gov. Janet Mills and Hannah Pingree, the party’s gubernatorial candidate. Both women urged her to continue to fight.

Pingree called Miles Delivers a powerhouse group, suggesting MaineHealth has no idea what kind of a fight they started.

After the Miles hospital board met Thursday, Reynolds told a gaggle of TV cameras Friday that more than 50 of the hospital’s own health care workers are supporting the Miles Delivers citizens group.

“We know these are hard decisions, but we want to pause to evaluate alternatives and bring everyone to the table and show everyone that another Maine maternity unit will not close until all alternatives are exhausted,” she said.

Pingree, who lives on North Island, about an hour’s ferry ride from the mainland, said she hoped that MaineHealth would postpone a final decision for a year.

“I would like them to wait for a year to give the incoming governor a chance to consider the move,” she said.

One of the key reasons hospital officials say they want to shutter the birthing unit is their inability to recruit physicians to work there, as there is not enough maternity business for a full-time hospital doctor. Miles says just 132 infants were born there last year.

That statement prompted Reynolds to reply: “If schools can’t recruit teachers, they don’t close the school.”

Miles Delivers says they met with hospital officials and offered alternative proposals that include fiscal and personnel sharing suggestions.

Pingree said other states, including Texas, have offered additional state funding to augment Medicaid reimbursement levels for birthing.

If elected, she pledged that one of the first items on her agenda would address the state’s rural hospital crisis.

“Twelve Maine hospitals have closed their delivery units in the last decade, nine in the last few years. I am calling on the MaineHealth Board. Do not close the one at Lincoln Hospital. I want to see a statewide moratorium on the question for a full year after the new governor is sworn in.”

She said the pause would not solve the problem, but it would give them time to get this right and find solutions.

“I will convene a maternity summit in my first month in office, and I will push it to real action.”

If elected, Pingree would be the first Maine governor to hold office while still caring for children at home.

Reynolds said she sat down with Gov. Mills, telling her she asked to meet with MaineHealth officials before the Aug. 6 board meeting.

“They told me they would meet with us on Aug. 7, and Gov. Mills told me that was unacceptable. She told me to call them back. I did, and they agreed to meet with us on Aug. 5.”

Pingree acknowledged the situation does not get solved by wishful thinking. "It gets solved by very pragmatic and specific solutions.”

"OK," I asked her. "What are your chances of success?"

“I think we have a good chance, maybe an 80% chance,” she said.