Four Chicago-area hospitals have suspended obstetrics services in the last month, with leaders running the facilities pointing to similar challenges: low Medicaid payment, rising costs to staff OB units and decreased birth volumes.
Across the country, maternity service closures haven’t slowed down over the last two years. Becker’s has reported on 25 hospitals ending maternity care to date in 2026 and 29 related closures in 2025.
In early October, Chicago-based Roseland Community Hospital shared plans to suspend labor and delivery services by the end of October. The hospital pointed to financial pressures plaguing safety-net hospitals.
Roseland Community said the closure will force women in the community to travel farther and wait longer for obstetric care.
“Roseland Hospital’s administration has fought a battle every day for 14 years to keep labor and delivery open in spite of tremendous odds,” the hospital said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “Suspending labor and delivery is not a decision Roseland Hospital’s administration made by choice.”
Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare also suspended obstetrics Oct. 1 at Joliet, Ill.-based Saint Joseph Medical Center, Aurora, Ill.-based Mercy Medical Center and Chicago-based Resurrection Medical Center. Prime is consolidating the services to centers of excellence for maternal care at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago and Olympia Fields (Ill.) Hospital.
Prime attributed the consolidation to years of financial distress, ownership changes and declining birth rates and volumes. It also weighed low and declining utilization, duplicated obstetrical capacity in a short distance and the ability of the designated centers to absorb deliveries when making the decision. Affected employees were offered positions at their hospitals, with more than three times as many positions open as affected staff.
Amid the consolidation plans, the system committed $1 million in grants to community-based nonprofits working on prenatal and postpartum access.
“By providing $1 million in grants directly to nonprofit community maternal health initiatives and expanding collaboration with FQHCs and trusted community providers, we can bring prenatal and postpartum care closer to where families live while concentrating deliveries at Centers of Excellence with the teams necessary to provide the highest level of care,” Sunny Bhatia, MD, president and CMO of Prime Healthcare, said in a Sept. 1 news release.
A statewide trend
Since 2020, 16 hospitals in Illinois have discontinued obstetric services, including three critical access hospitals and four safety-net hospitals, Dave Gross, senior vice president of government relations and communications for the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, said in a statement shared with Becker’s.
Many of the hospitals cited low volume or consolidation of the service line, particularly as systems look to regional care models for certain services, which are often connected to maintaining adequate volume for quality care.
“Prime’s recent decision to consolidate OB services was primarily driven by demographics and by extension the lack of volume necessary to ensure quality care,” Mr. Gross said. “The two centers of OB excellence that will be created through the consolidations will be to the benefit of two of Prime’s hospitals located in underserved communities.”
The association’s 2024 survey of birthing hospitals pointed to four main pressures: higher malpractice insurance costs connected to obstetrics risks, particularly cesarean births; low Medicaid reimbursement, especially given that more than half of births in Illinois are Medicaid births; challenges recruiting and maintaining staff, including physicians, nurses and subspecialists; and declining volume as birth rates decrease and fewer women are of childbearing age.
Mr. Gross said IHA and hospitals take the obstetrics issue seriously and are working with state partners and stakeholders to find opportunities that address care access for the needed services.
“Hospitals do not take the closure of a service line lightly, particularly Obstetrics, and it is often the last resort,” Mr. Gross said. “Where possible, hospitals do try to maintain access to certain services, such as pre-natal and postpartum care even if they no longer provide birthing services.”
Becker’s reached out to Roseland Community Hospital for additional comment and will update this story should more information become available. Prime Healthcare did not have additional information to share beyond its initial statements and news releases.
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