After 47 years and 16,000 babies, a Bryn Mawr birth center will close its doors early next year

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One of Pennsylvania’s first licensed independent birthing centers will close its doors after the New Year.

Leaders at Lifecycle Wellness and Birth Center in Bryn Mawr announced the move “with very heavy hearts” on social media and their website Thursday. Financial challenges and regulatory changes over the years have made it difficult to keep the center running, they said.

“Despite our best efforts to adapt our model through partnerships, operational efficiencies, and advocacy, these pressures have grown too great to sustain,” wrote Jessi Schwarz, executive and clinical director, and Lauren Harrington, board president, in a statement to the community.

Providers said they delivered 16,000 babies at the center in its nearly five decades of existence.

“In today’s health care environment, it has become increasingly difficult for small, independent providers to continue offering the kind of individualized care that has always defined Lifecycle Wellness.”

Certified nurse midwives and nurse practitioners will continue delivering babies through January, but will stop by Feb. 15. Other kinds of care, including prenatal, postpartum, gynecology, lactation support and mental health services will gradually close in February and March.

Lifecycle leaders thanked staff, volunteers and donors who had supported the nonprofit over the years.

“We also want to extend our sincerest appreciation to every family who has walked through our doors in the past half century,” wrote Schwarz and Harrington. “It has been an honor to be part of every family’s journey and to witness the strength, the love, and the beginnings of so many lives.”

The birth center opened in 1978 and became a destination for women with healthy, low-risk pregnancies who wanted an alternative option to delivering in a hospital, “yet shifts in public health and rising rates of medical complications have reduced the number of families eligible for this model of care,” providers said.

Patients facing pregnancy or delivery complications could be transferred to Bryn Mawr Hospital, across the street, where Lifecycle staff could continue providing care.

The birth center closure is part of a growing maternity care crisis affecting both hospitals and independent centers all over the country, research shows.

Health providers that offer obstetrical care face high costs for maintaining services, staffing and facilities. Some organizations are also experiencing a declining patient population as women have fewer children or none at all.

Combined with low reimbursement rates, a steady rise in malpractice insurance premiums and “legal pressures on maternal health providers,” Lifecycle leaders said it had become increasingly difficult “for small, independent, and nonprofit maternal health providers to exist.”

Lifecycle will transfer current patients to other health care providers in the area and help people obtain their medical records as services wind down over the next couple of months.