Gov. Janet Mills is pushing for a two-year delay on a decision about whether to close the birthing center at MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta.

In a July 31 letter to Marie McCarthy, chair of the MaineHealth board of trustees, Mills wrote that “additional time is essential in order to meaningfully engage the community on the issues at hand” and to “allow for full consideration of alternatives to closure.”

The board is scheduled to meet Thursday.

“I strongly urge the board to suspend its vote on a potential closure during its August 6th meeting and instead implement a two-year delay on any such decision,” Mills wrote in the letter.

The request from the governor comes on the heels of a grassroots effort by the Miles Delivers Action Coalition — Lincoln Hospital was formerly named Miles — to pressure MaineHealth to maintain the birthing center. Mills mentioned the group in her letter, saying she met with them and was “impressed by their thoughtful input.”

The governor also said in the letter that she had a conversation on July 30 with Dr. Andrew Mueller, CEO at MaineHealth, and made the same request.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, also on Monday urged for a delay, joining a chorus of politicians and community members calling on MaineHealth to maintain labor and delivery services at Lincoln Hospital.

“I urge you to explore every possible avenue to preserve access to labor and delivery services in Damariscotta,” Pingree wrote in a July 31 letter to Mueller and McCarthy.

In a statement on Monday, Kathleen Taggersell, a MaineHealth spokesperson, said officials value the input.

“MaineHealth understands the deep concern about access to maternity care in rural communities expressed by members of the Lincoln County community and concerned public officials, including Gov. Mills and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree,” Taggersell wrote. “We value their perspective, as well as the broader public discussion about how Maine can strengthen maternal healthcare, address workforce shortages and support sustainable access across the state.”

Eleven birthing centers have closed across Maine since 2015, as the state grapples with low birth rates and a difficult financial outlook for rural hospitals.

Lincoln Hospital officials have cited staffing shortages, the difficulty in recruiting obstetricians and midwives, and the hospital’s low birth volumes, as the primary reasons for the possible closure of the birthing center. Lincoln Hospital delivers about 130 babies annually, an uptick in recent years, but down from about 200 deliveries per year two decades ago.

All three major gubernatorial candidates have also called on MaineHealth to keep the maternity ward open.

Hannah Pingree, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee who worked in the Mills administration, recently joined members of the coalition in a news conference, where she proposed a statewide one-year moratorium on birthing center closures to give a new administration time to study and devise solutions. Republican nominee Bobby Charles and independent candidate Rick Bennett have also urged MaineHealth to keep the birthing center open.

Leslie Wolf, one of the leaders of the Miles Delivers Action Coalition, said in an interview on Monday that the group met with Mills on July 23, and is glad the governor is taking action.

“She’s telling the MaineHealth board exactly what we’ve been saying — delay this decision, engage the community and let the state’s potential new investments in maternal health actually have a chance to work,” Wolf said.

The coalition has advanced detailed suggestions on how the service can be maintained, and garnered support from MaineHealth doctors who have also said Lincoln Hospital should try to keep the center open. One idea recommended by the doctors is to look at alternative ways to staff the birthing center, such as training primary care doctors on delivering babies.

The coalition criticized the Lincoln Hospital board after its July meeting, indicating it had voted to recommend closing the birthing center. A Lincoln Hospital board member, Les Fossel, resigned immediately after the meeting. Fossel had previously told the Portland Press Herald he would resign if the Lincoln Hospital board recommended closure.

MaineHealth officials at the time refused to confirm the outcome of the Lincoln Hospital board vote.

The coalition has organized public rallies and marches to galvanize support, including one in Portland on Saturday.

Moira Rose Richards, another coalition leader, said on Monday that closing the maternity ward at Lincoln Hospital would be “terrifying.” Richards said local patients may have to travel to a hospital farther away to have their babies delivered, potentially in poor weather or heavy tourist traffic.

Richards said being able to give birth locally is important to “preserve rural communities in a state like Maine, because that’s where our culture is built.”

Mills wrote in the letter that delaying the decision would give time to see if additional resources through the Rural Health Transformation Program and the Transforming Maternal Health Model would help rural hospitals like Lincoln Hospital maintain their maternity wards.

The Rural Health Transformation Program partially offsets Medicaid cutbacks approved in 2025 by Congress, with Maine receiving $190 million in the first round of funding. Maine also received a 10-year, $17 million federal grant from the Transforming Maternal Health Model, which, in part, is aimed at alleviating workforce shortages in maternal care in rural areas.

Mills wrote that birthing centers are needed for “vibrant” communities in Maine, where “families, schools and businesses can flourish.”

“We cannot fully realize that goal without ensuring access to safe, timely and high-quality maternity and newborn services reasonably close to home,” Mills wrote.