North Shore Birth Center Patients Push Back On Care Level

BEVERLY, MA — Proponents of the North Shore Birth Center in Beverly protested the level of care patients are receiving as a proposed shutdown of the birth center looms.

Pregnant patients and representatives from the Massachusetts Nurses Association gathered late last week for a news conference where they charged that they are being forced out of the birth center and struggling to find equivalent care locally, while Beverly Hospital and Beth Israel scale down operations at the center ahead of its potential closure.

Beth Israel Lahey Health, which operates Beverly Hospital, said on Aug. 2 that it would take no further action on closing the birth center for 90 days, but patients said they have since been unable to reinstitute care at the birth center as services have either been restricted or eliminated.

"Why is this safer, more affordable option being taken away from women?" said Corey Kennedy, a Beverly resident who is pregnant with her second child, in a statement provided to Patch by an advocacy group called Campaign to Save the North Shore Birth Center. "It no longer feels like my prenatal care is about care at all, but more about money.

"And I think we can all agree that a woman bringing a child into this world should never be about profit."

Patch reached out to the hospital for a comment on the latest complaints on Friday and did not hear back as of Monday. Beth Israel Lahey Health previously said staffing challenges were among the reasons the birth center was to be shuttered.

"This is not what we expected, and it is not the response this community deserves," said Massachusetts Nurses Association President Katie Murphy, adding the MNA has offered to assist the birth center with its hiring issues. "They should make the commitment today that if we retain and we recruit, which we can and will do, then the birth center will remain open."

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey is among the lawmakers who have been critical of the pending closure.

"At a moment when reproductive freedom is under attack in this country, it is critical that here in Massachusetts we ensure pregnant patients have affordable reproductive health care and a choice of birthing options, including non-medical settings," Markey said in a statement provided to Patch. "The best interests of patients and staff should not be sacrificed to shift patients into more lucrative hospital care. I urge Beverly Hospital and Beth Israel Lahey Health to prioritize the livelihoods and expertise of their nurses and midwives and the care and well-being of their patients and consider alternatives to the closure of the Birth Center.

"It is especially imperative that Beverly Hospital and Beth Israel Lahey Health ensure that pregnant patients currently in their third trimesters experience no gaps in care."

The North Shore Birth Center is the only remaining free-standing, midwifery-led birth center in Eastern Massachusetts.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)