On Tuesday, July 15th, 2025, I attended the Newport, RI, Town Hall to discuss the sending of a formal letter to Brown University Health to implore them to keep the Birthing Center at the Newport Hospital. The meeting was very well attended; it was standing room only and lasted about 1.5 hours. I hope to share some interesting information about the situation and the meeting; my take on what is happening; talk about what to do about it; and my outstanding questions.
Despite extensive research, the original statement by Sarah Frost remains elusive. Several weeks before the meeting, Sarah Frost commented on the financial system of the hospitals operated by Brown University Health. To balance the budget, Frost mentioned that the Birthing center at Newport Hospital could be at risk of closure to meet the company’s financial needs. Newport residents were understandably concerned.
The Noreen Stoner Drexel Birthing Center has been an instrumental part of the community here in Newport since its creation in 1995. Based on statements from the hospital personnel present in the meeting, the center has roughly 500 babies being born every year.
If the birthing center were to close, residents would be forced to drive to neighboring hospitals to give birth, at a distance of roughly 30-40 minutes away, requiring traveling over bridges. Current and former hospital staff expressed concern that babies would either be traveling via ambulance or be born in the ER in Newport. Neither option is optimal for patient care.
The town hall meeting was filled with pleas from mothers, hospital staff, and community members for Brown University Health to continue operating the center. Many mothers talked about how positive the experience was at Newport, compared to other locations.
Despite the outpour of support, the clinic is run by Brown University Health, and the result of the meeting was the city council sending an official document to Brown University Health to keep the center open. Both Jamestown and Portsmouth followed Newport’s lead and passed resolutions opposing the closure.
Despite an official request to the press office at Newport Hospital, I have been unable to ascertain the amount of loss the birthing center incurs yearly. According to Forbes, the cost of having a baby can average between $14,000 and $27,000. Assuming a pregnancy rate of roughly 500 per year, that is somewhere between 7.5 and 13.5 million per year. That is assuming that the patients or insurance pays for no births.
The question that I have is, would it be possible to raise additional money from the State, county, townships, and philanthropic gifts to make up the lost cost and replace the contributions made by Noreen Stoner Drexel when the facility was opened?
Are there any other proactive steps we can take to ensure the long-term survival of the clinic?
Since starting this piece, Brown University Health has come out and stated that the Clinic will not be closed this year, but will be up for review next fiscal year.
Aside
Writing this was particularly hard. Finding source material from the new pieces I was reading online was very challenging.
I wrote this piece because I was upset with the coverage I was seeing. People mentioned the financial challenge, but there are no specifics. When I requested additional statistics from the Hospital, they were not forthcoming.
Many of the stories did not talk about the history of the center, did not mention information on the numbers, but instead focused on the emotional aspects of the story.
While this is an emotional story and I’m passionate about the issue, focusing solely on the emotion without understanding the financial numbers involved was only seeing half of the story. Even now that Brown University Health has committed to keeping the clinic open for another year, there is no resolution to the financial situation that initiated this entire process.