Sep 11, 2026 · 27 min · 8 segments
Vermont's top journalists join moderator Mitch Wertlieb to delve into the most important news stories of the week.
And Hannah Bassett, this started out with your story in 7 Days about maternity care in Vermont.
Overall, I was prepared to talk about three different birthing centers that have closed or are about to close.
And then the news was going to be, well, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital was about to close its birthing center in December.
But Lola Dufour, it turns out that Brattleboro will not be closing its birthing center.
The staff down in Brattleboro have been mounting this kind of superhuman grassroots effort to try and convince leaders on the ground there to try and change course and seem to have been able to convince them to give them... more time, right, to try and find a sustainable path forward for maternity care in the region.
The maternity unit there has also been working with leadership on just efficiency improvements.
But I think Big picture, right? There is not yet a plan in place that means the birthing unit in Brattleboro is going to break even this year, right? It is probably still going to lose millions of dollars.
And so I'm really glad that we're sort of having both of these conversations at once, right, because maternity care in Vermont is still incredibly vulnerable as it is across the United States, particularly in rural areas.
And as Hannah's reporting in seven days this week laid out really well, there's basically only one birth center in Vermont that breaks even.
You know, the article you wrote about, Hannah, it lays out, because we've been talking about this issue so much on this show, week by week.
And one of the things I found striking, and I think Lola was referring to this or alluding to it, nearly one in three expectant Vermonters has to travel beyond a half-hour radius to get to a birthing center, which is not recommended because, as we know, as officials I'm sure have told you, Burts are unpredictable.
And that one in three, I'll just add, was an estimate created through data before Copley closed last year in 2025.
Really? So it's possible that number has gotten worse and more challenging for Vermonters looking for obstetric care.
And Hannah Bassett, this started out with your story in 7 Days about maternity care in Vermont.
Overall, I was prepared to talk about three different birthing centers that have closed or are about to close.
And then the news was going to be, well, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital was about to close its birthing center in December.
But Lola Dufour, it turns out that Brattleboro will not be closing its birthing center.
The staff down in Brattleboro have been mounting this kind of superhuman grassroots effort to try and convince leaders on the ground there to try and change course and seem to have been able to convince them to give them... more time, right, to try and find a sustainable path forward for maternity care in the region.
The maternity unit there has also been working with leadership on just efficiency improvements.
But I think Big picture, right? There is not yet a plan in place that means the birthing unit in Brattleboro is going to break even this year, right? It is probably still going to lose millions of dollars.
And so I'm really glad that we're sort of having both of these conversations at once, right, because maternity care in Vermont is still incredibly vulnerable as it is across the United States, particularly in rural areas.
And as Hannah's reporting in seven days this week laid out really well, there's basically only one birth center in Vermont that breaks even.
You know, the article you wrote about, Hannah, it lays out, because we've been talking about this issue so much on this show, week by week.
And one of the things I found striking, and I think Lola was referring to this or alluding to it, nearly one in three expectant Vermonters has to travel beyond a half-hour radius to get to a birthing center, which is not recommended because, as we know, as officials I'm sure have told you, Burts are unpredictable.
And that one in three, I'll just add, was an estimate created through data before Copley closed last year in 2025.
Really? So it's possible that number has gotten worse and more challenging for Vermonters looking for obstetric care.
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