Powerful hearing in Beverly to save the North Shore Birth Center
On July 20, hundreds of community members gathered to testify at a Department of Public Health Hearing in an effort to stop the planned closure of North Shore Birth Center by Beth Israel Lahey Health.
Written testimony in support of North Shore Birth Center from Bay State Birth Coalition.
Oral testimony in support of North Shore Birth Center:
“Good evening. My name is Emily Anesta and I am president of Bay State Birth Coalition, a consumer advocacy group dedicated to expanding access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options in Massachusetts.
I am here today to urge that North Shore Birth Center remain open as it uniquely provides access to out-of-hospital birth in this region of the state.
Birth has been hyper-medicalized in the United States, resulting in
the worst maternal mortality rate in the developed world,
significant and increasing racial inequities in maternal and infant health, and
high rates of racism, coercion, abuse, and mistreatment of birthing people by medical providers.
These deficiencies in our maternal health care are well-documented.
Also well-documented is the clear evidence that out-of-hospital midwifery care improves both the outcomes and the experience of care.
Two state commissions (the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission and the Special Commission on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health) have recently recommended expanding access to birth centers in Massachusetts to improve outcomes, reduce racial inequities, and lower health care costs. We are going backwards.
Birth is an intensely personal and momentous experience. Most pregnant people are good candidates for out-of-hospital midwifery care, where birth is treated as the normal physiologic experience that it is.
Many birthing people want access to out-of-hospital birthing options. In fact, demand for out-of-hospital births in Massachusetts has skyrocketed, with the home birth rate rising by 47% from 2019 to 2020.
Everyone deserves to have the choice of where they give birth. Unfortunately, in Massachusetts, too few of us do have that choice.
Home births remain out of reach for most families, as they are not covered by Medicaid and rarely by insurance. Birth centers are an accessible option for community based care and out-of-hospital birth. Closing this birth center leaves our state with just 1 birth center operating, Seven Sisters in Northampton. There are 400 birth centers across the U.S.
While Massachusetts prides itself on exceptional health care and reproductive choice, the closing of this birth center puts us in the bottom 20% of states for number of birth centers relative to our birth rate. We have 1 birth center, while New Hampshire has 4, Maine has 3, California has 56, and Texas has 92.
As we fight for our reproductive freedom on so many fronts, don’t make it harder for those planning to give birth to have access to this choice.
I implore Beverly Hospital to keep North Shore Birth Center open and I ask the Department of Public Health to make it easier for birth centers to open and to operate sustainably in Massachusetts.”
Watch the hearing: https://youtu.be/2AzpGAQrBkk?t=3243
News coverage of hearing: https://www.newburyportnews.com/news/regional_news/public-makes-emotional-plea-to-keep-birth-center-open/article_68ad7ce3-55dd-5ba8-8d48-03d73b8816d2.html