Which CA hospitals are closing maternity wards?

By Ana B. Ibarra

Maternity wards across the country are closing at an alarming rate, including in the Golden State. This year alone, 11 California hospitals closed or indefinitely suspended their labor and delivery departments.

These hospitals include: El Centro Regional Medical Center in Imperial County, Doctors Hospital in Manteca in San Joaquin County and Petaluma Valley Hospital. Another hospital, Madera Community, closed down entirely at the start of the year.
But these are only the latest in an accelerating stream of maternity ward closures. At least 46 hospitals have nixed labor and delivery services since 2012, according to a new CalMatters analysis of hospital records submitted to the state. Twenty seven of those closures have taken place in just the last three years.

The impact: The closures are disproportionately affecting low-income and Latino communities, according to an analysis of census records. Some pregnant women now must travel farther to deliver their babies, and some of the maternity wards that are still open are being strained by the influx of new patients. In Imperial County, for example, only one hospital is left to deliver about 2,500 babies born a year. Otherwise, pregnant women must travel to San Diego or Riverside counties, almost two hours away.

Adriana Ramirez, manager of maternal health programs for Imperial County’s Public Health Department: “The choices are limited, and so sometimes women have reported that there’s a delay in being able to get into the maternity ward.”

This is all happening as the state and country also try to address a maternal health crisis. Pregnancy-related deaths reached a 10-year high in 2020, according to state data.

Assemblymember Akilah Weber, an obstetrician and Democrat from La Mesa: “At a time where we are finally recognizing that there are disparities within our healthcare system, when we are recognizing that there are disparities in the outcomes of our pregnant patients and their infants…we’re also at the same time increasing those disparities with these maternity ward closures.”

What’s behind the closures: Hospital administrators and experts cited multiple factors that are contributing to these closures, including: high costs, periods of financial stress for hospitals, labor shortages, consolidations and the state’s declining number of births. In the past 30 years, the state’s birth rate has dropped by almost half.

Carmela Coyle, president of the California Hospital Association: “I think there are multiple whys: In some of these rural communities, they’ve lost a key member of that team and they just can’t get them back. In other places, they simply don’t have enough births to make this safe. And in other places, it could be the finances where they simply can’t afford to support the entire team 24/7.”

For more on the maternal care crisis, read the story from me, working with CalMatters’ health reporter Kristen Hwang and data reporter Erica Yee.