Recently, The Bulletin featured a front-page headline announcing a proposed closure of St. Charles Redmond’s birth center. The story struck me emotionally not only because the decision would impact my job, but also because I recently delivered a baby in that birth center.

At first my response was anger directed at the article itself. “Why is this ‘maybe’ making the front-page news?” But I’m glad the article was published. The community needs to know that its options could be limited in the near future.

I’ve heard many statistics since about the number of births in Redmond actually being on the increase, about patient satisfaction scores, about the impact this closure will have on the rest of the hospital, about money.

But birth is not about numbers.

Sitting among a group of women discussing their own births, it becomes apparent that birth is a very personal experience that impacts women for the rest of their lives.

I am unique in that I have worked in both the St. Charles Bend and Redmond birth centers and I have delivered my own children in both the Bend and Redmond birth centers. All told, I have had six births. Two of them were in Bend and two of them were in Redmond.

The birth center in Bend is a safe place to deliver and it is filled with caring individuals. But there is something very special about the birth center in the smaller hospital of Redmond. I hope for the community of Central Oregon to know how special that place is.

The Redmond birth center has a culture of caregivers who are passionate about the individuality of birth. A woman’s choices in how she wishes to birth are honored and respected within the walls of a hospital.

Now that my initial anger over the proposed closure has subsided, I’m just sad. The potential loss of that culture, and the option the women have to deliver there, breaks my heart.

The baby I recently delivered was just a bit too early and needed to be transported to Bend’s NICU. Looking back now, would I have chosen to deliver in Bend knowing that logistically that would have been easier, knowing that I would have received good care? No. The labor was difficult and I don’t know how I would have coped without the team of passionate people who cared for me.

One might say that because they are my co-workers they took better care of me. Because they are my co-workers, I know that they care for every woman as they cared for me.

Women in our country, including many women in our community, are choosing to deliver their babies outside of the hospitals. The notion has even been suggested that this is why the Bend birth center has experienced a decrease in birth numbers.

Research birth and find very quickly that women like options. Women want some control over what happens to them. Some women are scarred by the removal of those options in previous experiences. Women choose to deliver where their choices will be honored.

I don’t know if keeping the Redmond birth center open would be a good business decision or not. The numbers that I have heard make me think that it would be.

But birth is not about numbers.

Birth is a once-in-a-lifetime moment when families are made. Birth is about a woman’s choices. Don’t remove this choice from the women of Central Oregon.