One of the last remaining birthing units in southern Alabama is closing. The small, nonprofit Grove Hill Memorial Hospital in Clarke County will discontinue its labor and delivery services on Friday, Aug. 16 at the end of the business day.
The closing comes after a decision by the governing board of Grove Hill Memorial Hospital elected to convert its status to Rural Emergency Hospital, defined as facilities with fewer than 50 beds that provide 24/7 emergency care and no inpatient services, including obstetrics.
In a Facebook post last month, the facility announced, “Grove Hill will continue offering around the clock physician directed emergency department services, clinical laboratory, diagnostic imaging, respiratory therapy, IV therapy, outpatient surgery and other outpatient services.”
The institution looks to qualify for federal funding, which is being billed as a way to save the hospital’s emergency services. A 2023 report by the Alabama Hospital Association found that the COVID-19 pandemic led to major financial problems for many of Alabama’s medical centers, which resulted in about half of the state’s hospitals losing money.
As birthing units close across Alabama, health experts are warning the move may cost newborns and pregnant people essential access to obstetric care.
“When a hospital in the rural area closes down, especially for obstetrical purposes, there's a lack of resources for the women who are pregnant,” said Noel Leithart, a retired certified professional midwife in Alabama. “They have to drive a long way for deliveries, perhaps maybe even for prenatal care, which probably would cause them to not receive prenatal care, which we all know can contribute to poor outcomes,” she explained.
Leithart said as more people are being forced to travel out of to their counties for adequate care, the already high infant and maternal mortality rates in Alabama could continue to rise as a result of less access to treatments.
The Yellowhammer State has the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation and one of the highest infant death rates in the country. Black infants and Black Alabamians who give birth experience higher mortality rates than their white and Hispanic counterparts, reports the advocacy group Alabama Arise.
The nonprofit also relays data that shows the infant mortality rate for Black babies is 1.5 times higher than the state average and nearly twice as high as the infant mortality rate for white babies. Similarly, Black mothers in Alabama are twice as likely to die during childbirth as their white counterparts.
The deadly rates are partially contributed to maternity care deserts across the Yellowhammer State, which is defined as a county or area where there is a lack of access to maternity care resources. These areas often have no obstetric providers, no birth centers or hospitals offering obstetric care.
Leithart said another factor contributing to the rural health crisis in the state is licensed midwives not being able to be Medicaid providers.
“We have had midwives have to turn down people in the maternity care desert because of the Medicaid issue. The last statistic that I looked at, over 60% of the rural pregnant people are on Medicaid.”
Alabama is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid for people with low incomes. Nearly 300,000 people in Alabama fall into the health coverage gap, meaning they earn too much for Medicaid in Alabama, yet too little to afford private health insurance.
The Alabama Hospital Association has reported that expanding Medicaid could boost the finances of rural hospitals and those that serve people with low incomes.
The Grove Hill Memorial Hospital closure marks the fourth labor and delivery unit to close statewide in less than a year. This also comes as Monroe County Hospital in the neighboring county closed its labor and delivery department.
East Alabama Medical Center-Lanier in Chambers County also announced plans to become a Rural Emergency Hospital.
