Nurses mourn sudden closure of Virginia Mason’s Family Birth Center
The closure deprives the community of another birth center and leaves dozens of labor and delivery nurses without a job they loved.
November 14, 2024 • 1 minute, 19 seconds to read
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.
The closure deprives the community of another birth center and leaves dozens of labor and delivery nurses without a job they loved.
Nurses say the closure is gut wrenching for patients and staff and the pain has been compounded with little notice and support.
The Virginia Mason Birth Center was launched in August 2020 after a 24-year hiatus in deliveries. The 55 nurses on the unit formed a close-knit work group re-envisioning what patient centered care for birthing families could be. Before the closure, the unit was delivering 50 babies a month.
“What’s especially heartbreaking for all of us is that we weren’t finished here yet at the Virginia Mason Birth Center,” said Heather Rosewarne, a charge nurse on the unit. “We are speaking up because we believe that closing this birth center is fundamentally wrong. This leaves a huge hole in the heart of Seattle.”
Rosewarne said the relationships the birth center built with community midwives and the fact that doulas kept bringing their clients here is a testament to the wonderful care given to birthing families.
“In this challenging time, we affirm that birthing people matter,” she said.
Nurses had a lot of pride in their work and providing a great birthing experience for families.
Families were supported patients in giving them the birthing experience they want —whether an epidural, unmedicated labor, a water birth. The nurses also had a special program to make sure patients with hypertension had close follow up to reduce future cardiovascular risk.
The closure marks a dangerous trend in the consolidation of healthcare, where decisions are made without regards to the community.
Virginia Mason Medical Center merged with CHI-Franciscan to form Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, a subsidiary of CommonSpirit Health, a Catholic health system which owns 142 hospitals nationwide and is the largest not-for-profit hospital chain in the country. The current president of Virginia Mason was part of the leadership team at an Ascension Healthcare hospital in Milwaukee that closed its birth center in December 2022.