Op-ed: Human cost of closing the Virginia Mason Birth Center

Note: The Virginia Mason Family Birth Center closed Nov. 16. Heather Rosewarne, the author, is now the assistant director at Global Perinatal Services, a community organization serving Black, immigrant, and refugee women.

Closing the Family Birth Center at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle has a human cost.

The sudden closure was not just the end of a service line, it took away the soul of a community and robbed healthcare staff from their calling. This closure was set in motion by the consolidation of healthcare.

When Virginia Mason Medical Center merged with CHI-Franciscan to form Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, our local leaders lost the autonomy to make decisions. They exited in droves when we were absorbed into the Catholic hospital chain of CommonSpirit Health. The current hospital president, Monica Hilt, came to Seattle from Milwaukee where she was the former chief operating officer at Ascension Wisconsin. During her leadership, the labor and delivery unit at St Francis Hospital was closed in December 2022.

The Virginia Mason Birth Center was launched during the pandemic in August 2020 —reopening to birthing families after a 24-year hiatus in deliveries. The new birth center staff came together to re-envision what patient-centered birth and postpartum care could be. We forged our own way, tackled three computer systems, and built rapport with other hospital departments, such as respiratory, laboratory and pharmacy. With each year, we welcomed new staff and the number of babies born grew from eight to 50 deliveries a month.

Our normal care was a leap above our neighboring hospitals because we had the time to provide individualized attention. Our small size enabled us to do what all nurses, midwives and physicians desire: To give attentive care that is restorative for patients and staff alike.

We understand financial decisions must be made, but it is devastating that what is being so quickly eliminated is a center dedicated to bringing life into the world. What is more sacred than birth?

For the healthcare executives who made this decision, we have a message: We want you to understand that you took community access to safe, respectful birthing.

When tiny babies needed drops of colostrum or bottles of donor milk, we helped with feeding. For families that wanted a homebirth and dreaded a necessary hospital transfer, we very often restored their faith in the healthcare system.

A dynamic OB-nurse duo even started a nationally recognized Postpartum Wellness and Recovery Program to make sure patients with hypertension had close follow up to reduce future cardiovascular risk.

Closing our birth center with little consideration to the effects on the patients was gut-wrenching. For our close-knit work family, we were heartbroken and adrift in collective grief. The closure was compounded by treating the staff like an expendable commodity.

Focusing on profit margins is stomping out the care in healthcare and eroding caregivers’ trust in the very corporations that employ us.

Nurses at Virginia Mason Medical Center held a vigil Nov. 14 to mourn the sudden closure of its Family Birth Center for apparently financial reasons.