Mercy West Lakes opened their Mother/Baby Unit in 2009. It was Mercy's goal to to have Mercy West Lakes "help Mercy fulfill it's mission of providing high quality care to everyone, everywhere."

Since it's opening in 2009, the birthing services at Mercy West Lakes has helped to ease the crowding and backing up of beds at Mercy Downtown. The staff at Mercy West Lakes has developed a culture that is very supportive of their Midwifery program the comfort of a less invasive means of childbirth while still delivering in a hospital setting. Mercy West Lakes also promotes a doula program that is free and available to patients.

Mercy Leadership Team has recently decided that women's comfort and education is not as important as their bottom line. They are choosing to close Mercy West Lakes, forcing women to go back downtown where the rooms are already backed up and they are unable to fully accommodate the number of deliveries they have now. The current patients at the downtown location are often cancelled for procedures due to lack of space on both the labor and delivery floor and on the postpartum floor. There is no plan by the hospital to alleviate the current congestion, which means adding the deliveries from Mercy West Lakes will only exacerbate the problem. Ultimately new moms will be bribed or mandated to go home early, before proper healing or education can take place in order to free up beds for the next patients. The access to safe, natural, supportive childbirth is being reduced in our city to fewer locations.

Mercy is a "not-for-profit" organization whose entire mission was derived from Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy. Catherine McAuley devoted her life to the sick, the poor and the uneducated. She also founded a shelter for abused and homeless women who were turned down by bureaucratic institutions with little sense of the urgency of their situations.

Mercy Hospital is not in business to make huge profits. It is in business to provide easy access to quality healthcare. Women being able to labor and deliver in a safe, supportive environment and not shuffled down an assembly line like cattle is a cause worth fighting for. Please join me in telling Mercy's Leadership Team that you will not accept women's healthcare options being limited. Demand that Mercy West Lakes keep their Mother/Baby unit for the respect of women and their birthing needs.