Former patient calls decision to stop deliveries at CHI Health Birth Center ‘disheartening’

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Lincoln birth clinic is getting backlash after it announced mothers can no longer deliver babies there.

CHI Health said its birth center at 80th and O streets does not have enough demand to continue deliveries.

The clinic will still offer checkups, but women will have to go to St. Elizabeth Hospital for birth.

The change takes effect Sept. 1.

“It’s really disheartening to hear that what’s most important is the bottom line and finances and not caring for people,” said Kayla Lamb, a former patient at the clinic.

She said this decision is a hard pill to swallow.

“I know a lot of women have concerns about delivering in a more clinical environment, want to do what’s natural to them,” Lamb said. “And you can’t get much more natural than a birth center. It’s probably as close to a home environment as possible.”

And in Nebraska, it can be hard to have a home birth.

While home births are legal in all 50 states, Nebraska is the only state where it’s illegal for certified nurse midwives to attend a home birth.

Many women don’t feel comfortable with the medications and procedures at hospitals.

“When you get ready to deliver a baby, so many things are out of your control,” Lamb said. “The least you can be able to do is be able to have a little bit of control over your environment.”

Some Lincoln women have protested the change. Lamb said that shows that people care about the topic.

“Even though the birth center delivers a small number of the babies in our community compared to the hospitals, it’s still important to have that choice and that option available,” she said. “And it is becoming more and more popular every single year.”

CHI Health said Lamb is correct.  In 2023, the clinic had its highest number of births.

But 81% of the patients at the clinic either chose to deliver at the hospital or had to because of medical risks.

The health center said in a statement that it has not stopped providing midwife deliveries.

“We have transferred the delivery experience to CHI Health St. Elizabeth, where women still have access to water births, private rooms and low-intervention options with the midwives they’ve come to know and trust. We made the decision to transition deliveries to the hospital because we continue to see more and more women with higher risk pregnancies who are not candidates to deliver in an offsite birth center.”