St. Joseph Warren Hospital will stop delivering babies in early December, ending decades of maternity care in Warren and sending expectant mothers on a drive of 30 miles or more south to Boardman. Mercy Health is folding its labor and delivery services into St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital, a move that local officials say will force families to rethink how they get to the hospital when it matters most.
According to wytv.com, the services at St. Joseph will be discontinued by early December as Mercy Health integrates them with St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital. Warren Mayor Doug Franklin said families may have to travel about 30 miles south to Boardman to deliver babies safely, and he noted the drive could take 30 to 40 minutes via Route 11 and Interstate 680 — even during a snowstorm. Hospital leadership held an hourlong phone conference with county and city leaders before making the announcement public.
St. Joseph Warren Hospital has long served as a place where generations of Warren residents received maternity care, Franklin said. That history makes the closure sting for local officials, even as Mercy Health insists the hospital will remain an integral healthcare resource for Warren and Trumbull County. The company told wfmj.com that no other St. Joseph services are expected to be affected by the closure.
Why Mercy Health Says the Change Is Necessary
Charlotte Gardiner, president of St. Joseph Warren Hospital, said the hospital could not continue the labor and delivery program without doctors. Mercy Health cited long-term regional healthcare needs and nationwide OB-GYN physician workforce challenges as the reasons behind the decision, per the station's report. The company determined that integrating deliveries at St. Elizabeth Boardman provides a foundation for sustainable, coordinated maternity care along with specialized resources that Warren could not sustain on its own.
St. Elizabeth Boardman already operates with maternal-fetal medicine specialists and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit in partnership with Akron Children's Hospital, the same source notes. James Kravec, acute care chief medical officer for Mercy Health in Ohio, said specialist expertise and coordination can benefit families facing high-risk pregnancies or unexpected complications. A Level III NICU provides advanced care for premature or medically fragile newborns close to home, often avoiding the need to transfer infants to another hospital.
Beds, Babies and a Numbers Discrepancy
Mercy Health is adding 20 maternity beds at St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital, a figure confirmed by wfmj.com's reporting on the expanded unit. The company says the added capacity and enhancements will let it support roughly 1,000 more mothers annually. Mercy Health's own hospital page describes St. Elizabeth Boardman as a licensed 224-bed regional medical center with 77 bassinets and 35 Level III obstetric beds, according to mercy.com.
Delivery volume figures vary depending on the source. Wytv.com reports that St. Elizabeth Boardman delivers approximately 3,400 babies each year, while a 2020 Tribune Chronicle report put the figure at about 3,300 annually, with St. Joseph delivering roughly 1,200 babies per year at that time. Once St. Joseph's labor and delivery unit closes, its second-floor space will be converted into a 25-bed inpatient unit, and patients will continue prenatal and postpartum care through their existing providers, with only deliveries occurring at the Boardman campus.
Local Leaders Push for Transportation Solutions
Trumbull County Commissioner Rick Hernandez called the closure disheartening and said county and city leaders must find transportation options to help mothers obtain proper care. Trumbull County and city leaders have said they will work together to address transportation issues for mothers who now face the longer trip. Franklin said some expectant mothers may ultimately look even farther afield, to birthing centers in Cleveland, Mayfield Heights or Farrell, Pennsylvania, if Boardman isn't a workable option for their circumstances.
To soften the blow locally, Mercy Health is adding Centering Pregnancy, Resource Mothers and fatherhood support programs at its Tod Avenue location in Warren. Centering Pregnancy provides prenatal checkups, health education, peer connection and guidance for new fathers, Franklin said. He added that the new programming will keep prenatal visits, postpartum care and family support anchored in the neighborhood even after deliveries move south. Mercy Health says it is working with physicians and clinical providers on continuity of care and a coordinated transition, and that St. Joseph's labor and delivery staff will have opportunities to transfer to roles at St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital or pursue other positions within Mercy Health.
Part of a Wider Pattern Across Ohio
St. Joseph's closure echoes a 2020 decision by nearby Trumbull Regional Medical Center, which ended its own maternity services that December after officials there said patient demand had remained low and the ward was significantly underutilized, according to tribtoday.com. Maternity services at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital were similarly relocated to Boardman back in 2014.
The trend extends well beyond Trumbull County. Nearly half of Ohio counties lack a hospital with labor and delivery services, and the Ohio Hospital Association estimates more than two dozen Ohio hospitals have closed or consolidated maternity care since 2018, according to axios.com. Nationwide, 96 labor-and-delivery units closed across 35 states between January 2024 and May 2026, the outlet reports, driven by declining birth rates, workforce shortages and financial pressures. A separate review found that five of Northeast Ohio's 15 counties lack a routine hospital delivery unit, according to cleveland.com.
Longer travel distances for maternity care are associated with delayed emergency care and a higher risk of unplanned out-of-hospital births, per Axios, and families without reliable transportation or with child-care responsibilities may struggle to travel farther for care. Ohio ranked 37th among the 52 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico for preterm birth in 2024, with a preterm-birth rate of 11.0%, according to the March of Dimes. For Warren families now facing a 30-mile trip to Boardman, that backdrop adds weight to Hernandez's call for a transportation fix before deliveries move south for good, as first detailed in The Vindicator's report on the closure.
