Nov 18, 2008 9:04 pm US/Eastern
Trustees Put Off Vote On Closing Birth Center
BEVERLY (WBZ) ―
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Dozens of supporters rallied in the cold to save the North Shore Birth Center.
WBZ
Trustees of the
North Shore Birth Center put off a vote on whether to stop doing deliveries because of a sharp rise in malpractice insurance premiums.
The center serves women with low-risk pregnancies who wish to give birth naturally in a quiet setting. The North Shore Birth Center is on the campus of Beverly Hospital.
Dozens of supporters of the center arrived in the bitter cold early Tuesday morning to hold signs as trustees arrived for the meeting. The movement to keep the center open is very organized, with
their own web site and letter campaign.Nearly 100 babies are born each year at the 28-year-old facility, one of only two free-standing birth centers in Massachusetts.
Northeast Health, which owns Beverly Hospital, issued a statement earlier this month saying it was evaluating services at the center because of the significant rise in malpractice premiums.
After the meeting Tuesday afternoon, the board released another statement saying nothing will be changed for the moment.
"The Board of Trustees is diligently weighing the impact that the closure of the Birth Center would have on the community; the level of community interest in its continued operation has not gone unnoticed," the statement read.
"The Board intends to leave the Birth Center services unchanged while it continues to examine and discuss this important issue."
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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