Birth center's possible demise ignites protest
A proposal to cease all deliveries at the North Shore Birth Center in Beverly - one of only two hospital-affiliated centers statewide that offer natural birth options - has ignited a passionate protest from women across the region.
With a debate and potential vote by Beverly Hospital's board of trustees expected Tuesday morning, women have been picketing the hospital, circulating fliers, writing letters to board members, blogging and organizing on Facebook, where more than 500 members have already signed on to the campaign.
Hospital officials have declined to comment but released a statement that acknowledges the center's services are being scrutinized and that no final decisions have been made about its future.
"As with other birth centers around the nation," the statement said, "North Shore Birth Center is experiencing a significant rise in the cost of malpractice insurance premiums."
This is the second controversy in recent weeks to hit Northeast Health System, which owns Beverly Hospital. Stephen R. Laverty, Beverly Hospital's embattled CEO, stepped down last week following a vote of no confidence by the hospital's doctors and nurses.
The center's nurse-midwives, operating out of a cozy, homelike bungalow on the grounds of Beverly Hospital, have helped deliver more than 6,000 babies since the facility opened in 1980. Unlike a hospital setting offering drugs to induce labor and control pain and machines to monitor the process, the center features a Jacuzzi or tub for labor and delivery, holistic approaches to pain management, and a kitchen, living room, garden, and deck encouraging family and friends to gather and participate in the birth.
"It's very quiet and serene. There's no rush of hospital sounds in the background," said Donna Fritz, a 33-year old Salem mother who has delivered two children at the center in the past four years, surrounded by family. She is now helping with the "Save the North Shore Birth Center" campaign.
Word of the center's possible demise started popping up on e-mail chains last week, and within days a grass-roots group of women who have had babies there sprang into action.
"We have a very important stake in the decision they're making, and it seems like they're moving too quickly to allow the community to have a voice in their decision-making process," said Rebecca Hains, group cofounder and an assistant Salem State College professor of communications.
Hains, who had a son eight weeks ago at the center, said hospital officials have declined to meet with the group but that board chairwoman Nancy Palmer did acknowledge in a brief phone conversation with her that the board would be discussing the center's fate on Tuesday. Palmer did not return a phone call from the Globe.
The controversy comes amid a larger debate in the medical and legal communities about maternity care and high medical malpractice insurance premiums paid by hospitals and doctors. Concern about malpractice lawsuits has prompted physicians nationwide to become hyper-cautious, and that has driven up the numbers nationwide of more controlled, caesarean section births.
But C-sections can expose women to serious complications, according to studies cited in a Nov. 11 letter to trustees and cosigned by Eugene Declercq, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health.
"Defensive practices in obstetrics unfortunately have encouraged practices that evidence shows are harmful or provide no benefits," stated the letter, which urged board members to keep the center open.
Judy Norsigian, executive director of Our Bodies Ourselves, a nonprofit women's health and advocacy organization, also signed the letter.
"The irony here is, if the [hospital] lawyers cave in to a not-well-thought-through judgment that they have to do this to protect themselves financially, they will worsen outcomes for women overall giving birth in that system," Norsigian said in a phone interview. "These are safe choices being denied to women who are well-informed."
If hospital trustees decide to stop birth center deliveries, the birth center at Cambridge Hospital will be the sole such facility remaining in the state.
Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com 