The wave of maternity service closures has shown no signs of slowing down in 2026. As hospitals continue to grapple with persistent financial pressures, staffing shortages and falling birth rates, more facilities weigh ending labor and delivery services.
The closures add to a troubling pattern that saw Becker’s report 29 maternity care service closures throughout 2025.
Becker’s has reported on the following hospitals ending maternity care in 2026, along with closure plans, pauses and transfer statuses:
1. Lawrence, Mass.-based Merrimack Health plans to end maternity and neonatal services at its Methuen (Mass.) Hospital and consolidate them to its Lawrence Hospital, effective Aug. 1, pending state approval. The health system cited declining birth rates and concerns about maintaining care quality at low-volume facilities. The consolidation will affect approximately 85 staff, however, Merrimack Health expects most will be offered maternal child health positions at the system.
2. Little Rock, Ark.-based Baptist Health has shared plans to discontinue labor and delivery and obstetrics services April 28 at its Baptist Health-Fort Smith campus. The decision, which will impact 40 employees, followed an analysis of the program’s long-term operational sustainability amid ongoing challenges, including increased specialized care costs. The hospital has also seen a birth decline from 92 per month to around 20 per month over the last five years.
3. Fort Mill, S.C.-based Piedmont Medical Center has shared plans to realign services across its two hospital campuses. Obstetrics, labor and delivery and neonatal services will come under Piedmont Medical Center Fort Mill, effective May 12, while Piedmont Medical Center Rock Hill (S.C.) will expand trauma, surgical, neurosurgery and cardiovascular care services. The Rock Hill campus’s emergency department staff will remain equipped to care for pregnant patients seeking emergency services following the May transition.
4. MercyOne Clinton (Iowa) Medical Center will transition labor and delivery services to other Iowa-based MercyOne birth centers in Davenport, Dubuque and Silvis. May 26 is the last day for scheduled deliveries at the hospital.
The facility pointed to an inability to sustain demand for labor and delivery services, along with national challenges like increased costs, staffing shortages and reimbursement that does not fully cover care costs.
5. Weston, W. Va.-based Mon Health Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital, part of Charleston, W. Va.-based Vandalia Health, will end obstetrics delivery services May 1. The hospital cited challenges to recruit full-time clinical staff and declining birth rates in the region.
6. Stanford, Ky.-based Ephraim McDowell Fort Logan Hospital moved its inpatient labor and delivery services Feb. 16 to Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville, Ky. The hospitals are part of the Danville-based Ephraim McDowell Health system and are a 15-minute drive from each other.
7. Franklin, Ind.-based Johnson Memorial Health plans to phase out obstetrics services and the maternity care center on its Franklin campus. It will also take added steps to cut costs, which includes employee reductions. The health system pointed to decreasing federal and state insurance reimbursement rates, and coverage and rising service costs for the service phase out.
8. Sweetwater (Tenn.) Hospital Association shared plans Jan. 22 to close its labor and delivery department Feb. 28. The closure was due to ongoing challenges like maintaining specialty provider coverage and financial constraints including declining patient volumes, reimbursement rates and rising operational costs, according to a Facebook post from the hospital.
Gynecology and pediatrics services will remain available at the hospital, along with outpatient services like bone density studies, breast imaging and mammography, pelvic floor rehabilitation and physical therapy.
9. Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center in Fort Madison, operated by West Burlington, Iowa-based Great River Health, will shutter its inpatient labor and delivery services by the end of 2026. The decision came as part of the system’s transition to a hub-and-spoke maternal care model, consolidating labor and delivery to a central site while maintaining pre- and postnatal services locally in outpatient settings.
10. Ouachita County Medical Center in Camden, Ark., closed its labor and delivery unit Jan. 9. The decision came after efforts to maintain profitability were unsuccessful. The medical center’s CEO, Glenda Harper, who started in August 2025, initially kept the unit open to assess its viability, but found the effort unsustainable given minimal delivery volumes (just 119 in 2025), declining reimbursements and difficulty retaining OB nurses. Affected employees were offered other hospital positions.
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