WCVB Boston Covers DPH Hearing for Proposed UMass Memorial Closure of Leominster Birthing Ce

Published: Jul 25, 2023

"It's going to hurt everyone in our community," one community member told WCVB Channel 5 Boston. "Because people are

not going to have time to get to Worcester. They may not have transportation, they may not have funding, and what about their families?"

Channel 5 was at the Department of Public Health hearing on Monday, July 24, regarding the proposed closure by UMass Memorial Health of the Birthing Center at Leominster Hospital.

The center provides an essential service that must be maintained, including labor, delivery, postpartum and nursery care for families l

iving in communities of Northern Worcester County.

The loss of this service would jeopardize the health of mothers and newborns in our community, leaving mothers to deliver in overcrowded emergency departments or on the side of highways as they travel to birthing centers in faraway communities.