Regional grant to guide future of maternity and newborn care in Southeast Vermont

BMH said the initiative will be an important step toward a regional care system that can support families now and into the future.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has secured $3.1 million in Rural Health Transformation Program funding to help shape the future of birthing and newborn services in Southeast Vermont, joining with other hospitals, health groups and social service organizations to build a plan that can last.

The effort will be organized through the Southeast Vermont Perinatal & Newborn Access Network, a collaborative group created for the grant application and designed to examine how care can be delivered across the region. BMH said the work is intended to produce a long-term model for service delivery rather than immediate patient-care funding.

The planning process will run for 10 months, with work expected to begin around Oct. 1. It is scheduled to continue through July 31, 2027 and should end with a regional care blueprint, a financial sustainability review and a five-year implementation plan.

Hospital leaders said the project will examine several options, including shared staffing and services among hospitals, regionally coordinated birthing care, and community-based prenatal, postpartum and newborn support. The review will also address workforce shortages, referral and transfer systems, transportation access and the financial pressures facing rural health care.

BMH said the grant will not pay for direct care or act as an operating subsidy for the Birthing Center, but it will support the planning work needed to assess service needs and develop a future model.

The hospital’s acting co-CEOs, Dr. Elizabeth McLarney and Dr. Tony Blofson, said the initiative gives the region a chance to work together on a problem that cannot be solved by one organization alone. They said the aim is to preserve reliable, high-quality maternity and newborn services for families across Southeast Vermont while building something financially sustainable.

The hospital said it continues to operate Southeast Vermont’s only remaining hospital-based birthing center. A recent effort to close the center because of financial strain was reversed earlier this month after the BMH Board of Directors backed continuing obstetric and birthing services, helped in part by the new funding.

Leaders have also put in place an improvement plan that includes staffing changes, more efficient operations, more appointment availability, better coding and charge capture, and efforts to increase the number of births handled at BMH. The hospital said updated fiscal year 2026 projections now anticipate more births.

Chloe Learey, chairwoman of the BMH Board of Directors, has said local maternity care is essential to community health and that the hospital is encouraged by recent progress and the chance to keep improving care delivery.

BMH also plans to keep working with state and federal lawmakers on payment changes and on possible structures that could improve financial stability, including Critical Access Hospital and Federally Qualified Health Center models.

In addition to local partners, the project will include coordination with Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth Health in New Hampshire and Baystate Franklin in Massachusetts to help refine consultation, referral and transfer routes.

BMH said the initiative will be an important step toward a regional care system that can support families now and into the future.