MaineHealth will close Lincoln Hospital’s labor and delivery unit in December
The MaineHealth board of trustees voted Thursday to close the labor and delivery unit of MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta after months of discussion and community pushback.
The unit is set to close on Dec. 18, and services will be moved to MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, according to a statement from the health system.
The closure will mark the 12th maternity unit in Maine that has shuttered since 2015, leaving Lincoln County, Waldo County and Sagadahoc County without hospitals that deliver babies. The decision means fewer than half of Maine’s 34 hospitals will offer a place to give birth.
Gov. Janet Mills, U.S. Rep Chellie Pingree, all three gubernatorial candidates and others had called on the hospital to delay the decision and preserve birthing services in Damariscotta.
The board promised in its statement that the health system would not close any additional labor and delivery units in the next two years, and called on state lawmakers and the next governor t…