By Cate Lecuyer
BEVERLY — Supporters of the North Shore Birth Center said yesterday's decision to keep it open for now is a positive step in their fight to save the service.
"Having made a decision today, especially a decision to close the center, would have seemed pretty rushed," said Beverly mother Rebecca Hains. "It's a step in the right direction."
The board of trustees of Northeast Health System — which owns Beverly Hospital and the birth center — postponed its vote yesterday on a proposal to stop allowing births there.
A statement from Beverly Hospital said services will not change while the trustees examine the issue and did not address when the board would make a decision.
"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 said.
Trustees met yesterday morning to discuss the proposal as more than 100 mothers, fathers and children lined Herrick Street and rallied to save the center.
Bundled up in big coats and holding colorful signs, they clapped as cars drove by honking, and some organizers spoke passionately to the crowd about having a natural birth in an intimate setting.
Since learning on Nov. 5 about a proposal to close the center, mothers have launched a grassroots campaign to keep it open. They've mailed trustees hundreds of letters, started a blog and a Facebook group, contacted the media, and requested that trustees postpone the vote and meet with them.
Now, they plan to ask the board again to meet with them. A previous meeting request was denied by trustees Chairwoman Nancy Palmer, Hains said.
"We are going to request a meeting right away and ask for them to have more transparency moving forward," she said. "While we appreciate their need to deliberate in private, we believe the discussion could be more open."
The hospital has said it may stop births at the center because of a significant rise in the cost of malpractice insurance premiums that birth centers around the country are experiencing.
But organizers have also heard there are other factors, like liability issues and questions about the risks of having a natural birth, and would like a chance to address those concerns.
"Let's have a conversation," Hains said to the crowd gathered outside yesterday morning. "All we're asking for is a voice."
Indeed, protesters had a lot to say as they stood picketing in the cold.
Bridget Baumgaertel of Gloucester had both her kids at the birth center. Her first child, Cyrus, weighed 101รขÑ2 pounds.
"And I'm 5-foot-2," she said. "I would not have had him naturally anywhere else."
Because the center is on the hospital campus, there's a good safety net in case there are complications. When considering a hospital birth or a home birth, many women have described the center as being the best of both worlds.
"I just think women should be able to have a choice of where they want to birth," Baumgaertel said. Closing it, she said, would be a loss for the community.
"It's like taking a step backward."
The North Shore Birth Center is tailored to women with low-risk pregnancies who want to give birth naturally, with no drugs, in a quiet, private setting. Opened in 1980, it's the first freestanding birth center in the Northeast. The only other center in the state is in Cambridge.
Also attending the rally was Marci Anthony, the first woman to have a child at the center. Her daughter Crystal, now 28, was born on Nov. 20, 1980.
"It turned out to be very positive for me — all seven times," she said.
Crystal said she remembered being at the center when her siblings were born. "They made the whole family feel part of it and welcome at the center," she said. After Anthony's daughter Naomi was born late at night, the whole family gathered in the birth center kitchen and ate pizza.
The center opened three weeks before Crystal was born. Anthony never considered a home birth, but as soon as she heard about the center — with the hospital nearby — she knew she wanted to bring her children into the world naturally.
"It's the oldest and most time-tested way to give birth," she said. "I hate to think people in Crystal's generation won't have this."
