Vol. 3: the numbers

MaineHealth Claims the Family Birth Center is "Unsustainable," but Every Number Says the Opposite.

MaineHealth is reviewing the Family Birth Center as though demand were drying up. It is not. All the public data point the same way: more deliveries, more mothers, and a hospital that out-earns nearly every other in Maine.

Deliveries at Miles are rising

Babies delivered at Lincoln Hospital, per year

Deliveries rose 43% between 2019 and 2024. Year to year the count bounces around — but the trend runs steadily upward.

Deliveries (facility records)

Linear trend

Live births by facility, MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital. Source: Mills, "Maine's Rural Maternity Crisis," Maine Policy Review 34.2 (2025), Table 2 (Maine CDC Office of Data, Research & Vital Statistics). Trend line is an ordinary least-squares fit across 2019–2024 — rising about seven deliveries a year.

The population of mothers is growing again

Lincoln County women ages 25–44

After falling for most of the 2010s, Lincoln County's birthing-age population has rebounded every year since 2019 — there is no shrinking pool of mothers.

Women ages 25–44, U.S. Census American Community Survey 5-year estimates (Table B01001), Lincoln County, Maine, 2010–2024. Up 11% since the 2019 low.

More mothers, and more of them choosing Miles

Deliveries at Miles and Lincoln County women 25–44, 2019–2024

Deliveries at Miles are up 43% since 2019 — outpacing even the county's growing population of mothers, which itself is up 11%.

Deliveries at Miles (right axis) Women 25–44 (left axis)

Two scales, both shown. Sources as in the panels above. The point is direction: both series climb across the period.

The hospital is profitable — by a wide margin

Operating margin, FY2024

Lincoln Hospital earns a margin roughly sixteen times that of the typical Maine hospital. This is a profitable operation, not a struggling one.

Lincoln Hospital

5.56%

Typical Maine hospital (median)

0.35%

Median for all Maine hospitals FY2024: 0.35%. Lincoln Hospital posted a positive operating margin every year FY2021–FY2024. Source: Maine Health Data Organization, Financial Data Report (A), LincolnHealth (Peer Group D).

A birth center that earned its reputation

First in Maine to be Baby-Friendly

First in the state and fifth in the nation to earn the WHO/UNICEF designation.

Human-milk depot since 2018

A regional collection point for donated breast milk.

Donor milk for newborns since 2021

Pasteurized donor milk dispensed to babies born at the hospital.

Board-certified lactation support

International Board Certified Lactation Consultants on staff.

Rooming-in for 40+ years

Mother and newborn kept together; skin-to-skin for both parents.

Central Lincoln County's only unit

The sole labor-and-delivery service for the county's coastal core.

Rising deliveries. A rebounding population of mothers. A hospital out-earning nearly every peer in the state. The public case for reviewing the Family Birth Center describes

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1. Deliveries at Miles (live births by facility, MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital): Mills, "Maine's Rural Maternity Crisis: A Policy Agenda," Maine Policy Review 34.2 (2025), Table 2 — drawn from the Maine CDC Office of Data, Research & Vital Statistics. 2019: 92; 2020: 111; 2021: 111; 2022: 101; 2023: 132; 2024: 132.

2. Women ages 25–44: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Table B01001, Lincoln County, Maine, 2010–2024.

3. Operating margin: Maine Health Data Organization, Financial Data Report (A), Select Hospital Data Elements and Ratios, FY2024, LincolnHealth (Peer Group D); all-Maine median, same report.

4. Baby-Friendly designation (first in Maine, fifth in nation), milk depot, donor milk, lactation, rooming-in: MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital Family Birth Center materials; Lincoln County News; Boothbay Register (2019 redesignation). ‍