One of the things that makes Waldo County and especially Belfast such a special place is how engaged residents are with their community. 

This was evident at the community forum Waldo County General Hospital (WCGH) held on Aug. 7 at the Belfast Area High School where more than 200 people showed up to join the conversation about redesigning our labor and delivery practice to ensure that birthing parents have access to the safest and highest quality of care as close to home as possible.

I am so grateful for the thoughtful ideas and deeply personal stories that so many community members shared with me, my leadership team and the local board of trustee members who attended.

I was especially moved by the many stories that community members shared about their own birthing experiences at WCGH and how they universally praised the compassionate care they received from our labor and delivery team. These powerful testimonials depicted a caring and deeply committed group of caregivers that has worked under challenging conditions for a very long time. This team deserves our gratitude and respect, and I am so proud of them.

As we have said since we started these conversations, we are reviewing labor and delivery at WCGH in the face of persistent staffing challenges and declining birth rates. We had hoped to wrap up this review by September but, in the interest of giving this important work the time is deserves, we are now planning to present it to the local Board of Trustees in November. We will continue to keep the community updated as we move through this process.

For now, let me say how proud I am to serve this community. If the level of respect and grace that community members showed at the community forum is the standard, then I have no doubt that Waldo County and Belfast will continue to grow as one of the most vibrant and attractive communities in all of Maine.

Denise Needham, PharmD, is president of Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast and Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport.