894: I Couldn't Help but Notice

The local hospital there is Houlton Regional Hospital, and last year they announced they were gonna close their labor and delivery unit with one month's notice.

Even the unit's nurse manager, Heather Quinn, had no idea it was actually coming.

It was delivered very, um, abruptly and matter-of-factly, I guess.

This is what's happening.

Our birth rates are going down.

We can't recruit.

Um, it's not [laughs] basically a money maker, so we're closing.

There was no, "I'm sorry," you know, "We hate to..." You know, it was, it was just very matter-of-factly.

It is a pretty matter-of-fact reality at this point in America, rural hospitals closing.

But labor and delivery departments in particular, they've been vanishing in lots of rural areas.

And when a community loses a place to have babies, in the first weeks after that happens, that's when you really see what it means in people's lives.

And the story in Maine unfolded just after Houlton Regional Hospital packed up its labor and delivery department and closed the doors there.

[gentle music] As that was happening, a woman who lives in the area named Katie Gowell was pregnant with her fifth child.

This was a low-risk pregnancy.

She was planning to give birth at home, just like she'd done with her fourth child.

Her family doctor, who was a midwife before she became a doctor, was gonna deliver the baby.

So that was the plan.

29 days after Houlton closed its labor and delivery department, Katie Gowell went into labor at home.

Reporter Elaine Appleton Grant has the story of what happened next.

Quick heads-up before we start, some of us here on staff found ourselves thinking about the TV show The Pit as we were making this story, uh, because there's no way to explain what happened without diving into some very vivid, uh, medical details during childbirth.

Just wanna say, if that's not for you, please know that is part of this story.

Here's Elaine Appleton Grant.

Sunday, June 1st, 2025, just after midnight, Katie starts having contractions.

She calls her mom, and eventually her doctor.

Lots of family members show up.