Within the next month, St. Elizabeth’s Boardman campus will be the only dedicated labor and delivery unit in Mahoning County.

With the recent closure of Salem Regional’s obstetrics and gynecology services, as well as the announcement of the impending closure of Northside Medical Center, expectant mothers in the area will need to travel to the Boardman campus of Mercy Health.

The Mahoning County Board of Health reports almost 75% of all births in the county were already happening at St. Elizabeth’s in Boardman.

In 2017, approximately 3,000 babies were born on the Boardman campus.

But with the closure of surrounding labor and delivery units, St. Elizabeth’s could see an influx of births.

Which is part of the reason Mercy Health is looking at expanding and changing some programs.

With the creation of the Boardman campus, Mercy Health planned for potential expansions in the future- now they’re looking at turning floor space into an additional floor of labor, delivery, and maternity services.

First, the system will need to get approval from the Ohio Department of Health, which they’re one step closer to with an inspection that took place Monday morning.

However, there are still some question marks.

“We’ve reached out to Steward to understand more about what volumes they have,” explained Mercy Health CEO and President Donald Kline. “We’re basing it on assumptions of what we believe the mix to be, and so that’ll educate our opinion a bit more.”

Once Mercy officials are able to learn more from Steward, the owner of Northside Medical Center, they’ll be able to determine exactly how many more labor and delivery rooms they’ll need to expand to.

The ability to expand is just one component of what has had Boardman’s maternity services expanding.

“It’s a level three maternity ward, it’s got the NICU services, we have the partnership with Akron Children's Hospital there,” said Kline. “It really is harder to have those kinds of operations in a smaller unit. Which is why you see operations like East Liverpool, Salem, and Northside closing their doors, unfortunately. Very, unfortunately.”

In addition to the proposed expansion, Mercy is looking at changing some plans that were already in the works.

For example, one project already in the works- establishing three central sites for Centering Pregnancy groups.

Centering Pregnancy is a program designed to help moms-to-be find support in a group setting, particularly with other moms who are at the same gestational age or have similar health concerns.

Kline says now Mercy may reevaluate where one of those centers is placed geographically in order to fill the gap left behind by Northside’s closure.

Kline explained that while Northside’s closure may mean one less resource in the community, Mercy Health may need to respond by accelerating some things and providing more support to ongoing programs.

For instance, Kline says they are dedicated to continuing to fight the high infant mortality rate in the area, a sentiment that’s echoed by the Mahoning County Board of Health.

Health Commissioner Pat Sweeney explained that while the Valley does have a high infant mortality rate, the numbers don’t come down to where babies are born.

Instead, the highest indicator of potential infant mortality is the health of the mother and prenatal care, according to Sweeney.

“Instead of looking at infant mortality as if it’s an issue of where babies are born,” said Sweeney “we  should be looking at the root causes- which is the social circumstances of the women.”

Which Sweeney says makes community programs and wrap-around services particularly important.

“Things like does she have a car, does she have education, is the house she living in falling apart and full of lead,” said Sweeney.

Sweeney and Kline say both the board of health and Mercy Health have full-time outreach coordinators to help women in the Valley find the health care they need to keep themselves and their babies healthy.

“When you look at it, our black infant mortality rate is three times as high as our white infant mortality rate,” said Sweeney. “When we go out into the community to try to talk about it that is news to them.”

Kline and Sweeney echoed the sentiment that one of their main priorities is helping women in need find their available resources, programs that can help, and making sure they are as healthy as possible before, during, and after pregnancy.

“There are so many resources around,” said Sweeney. “There’s something called Oh Kids in our state, the Help Me Grow program, Healthy Starts. There are so many programs that women can reach out to.”

Sweeney even mentioned services that help provide transportation to expectant mothers in order to make it to appointments and such.

“Our Community Pathways Hub is probably the best path to start. They can refer you out to whichever resource you need,” Sweeney said.

For more information on resources available, contact the Pathways Hub at (330) 270-2855.