Roseland Community Hospital is set to suspend its labor and delivery services in a few days, in a decision that has sparked outrage and action.
Lawmakers and nurses spoke Wednesday morning outside the hospital, at 45 W. 111th St., and they said the issue extends far beyond just one facility.
A group of health care workers also rallied outside the hospital back on Oct. 12.
The suspension of maternal care at Roseland marks the fourth labor and delivery unit to shutter in the Chicago area this month. South Side and south suburban expectant mothers, as well as the nurses and doctors who treat them, have lost services nearly 10 times since 2019, according to the nonprofit March of Dimes.
Doctors and nurses fear that the health of would-be moms is on the line, and that Black maternal health is not being taken seriously.
Pregnant women in the area will need to travel farther for care.
The people at the protest a few weeks ago, and the one happening outside Roseland Community Hospital later Wednesday morning, have urged hospital leaders to push the pause button and come up with a transition plan.
However, it appears that the suspension of labor and delivery at Roseland is still on track for this weekend.
Earlier this month, low birth rates and rising costs led St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet and two other Prime Healthcare-owned facilities in Chicago and Aurora to drop labor and delivery services.
The hospital system centralized care to St. Mary of Nazareth in the city's Ukrainian Village neighborhood and Olympia Fields Hospital.
Leaders say the move will be better for expectant mothers because specialists will be available 24/7.
Still, demonstrations are proof unto themselves that health care workers are upset.
"When a community loses access to labor and delivery services, we have to ask, what happens to the mother who is already in labor, the mother whose blood pressure suddenly becomes dangerous, or the mother who needs emergency obstetric care?" said Mercedes Wells. "We cannot wait until another family experiences a tragedy to start asking those questions."
Earlier, CBS News Chicago spoke to an OB/GYN whose Prime Healthcare-run hospital is no longer delivering babies.
"A lot of doctors do not accept patients after 34 weeks, so they're just going to show up in some emergency room to be delivered by whomever who they've never met, they don't have a relationship with," said Dr. Maria Munoz, an OB/GYN at Resurrection Medical Center.
The organizers of the rally at Roseland Community Hospital Wednesday morning said the shutdown of labor and delivery services there and elsewhere is happening not because OB/GYN services are no longer needed, but is rather a sign of bad policy.
Cook County commissioners have called for a public hearing on the topic.
