According to an online petition at change.org, the board of ThedaCare Waupaca decided to close the labor and delivery unit this week. “Our community deserves to continue to have high-quality care for pregnancy in Waupaca,” it states.

The petition reads:

We, the undersigned staff of ThedaCare Waupaca and members of the Waupaca community and surrounding area, respectfully ask Froedtert ThedaCare Health Inc. and the board of the ThedaCare Waupaca hospital to reconsider the decision to close the obstetric unit at ThedaCare Waupaca hospital.

The health care team in Waupaca has provided maternity care for the Waupaca community since before Riverside Hospital was built. We continue to provide high quality respectful care for pregnant people and newborns from around our area. Our team excels in supporting breastfeeding and our breastfeeding rates are the highest in the ThedaCare system. The family medicine physicians that staff our hospital have come from around the country to practice in our community because they love taking care of pregnant people and babies. Obstetrics is the heart of our clinic and of our critical access hospital.

If the labor and delivery unit at ThedaCare Waupaca closes, there will be no hospital providing pregnancy care in a wide swath of central Wisconsin. Our community members will need to drive up to an hour from their homes to receive maternity care. This is more than an inconvenience for our community. Research shows that lack of local maternity care increases rates of maternal and infant death.

Our community has come together in the past to support local medical care. Our local hospital was built with the support of the community and continues to be strong because of the people of Waupaca County. We ask Froedtert ThedaCare Health, Inc. and the board of the ThedaCare Waupaca hospital to stand with us to support rural pregnancy care and keep this vital service in our local community.

You can view the petition and “Reasons for signing” responses here.

There was no news release on the ThedaCare corporate website announcing this action.