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Goals are to improve health care and outcomes, enable new mothers to stay closer to home


Chatham Hospital opened its new Maternity Care Center on Tuesday, Sept. 8, and is ready to begin delivering babies at the hospital for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Many smaller, rural hospitals around the country – including in North Carolina – have stopped delivering babies, but Chatham Hospital is proud to reverse that trend. UNC Health invested $2.6 million to build the new Maternity Care Center to improve care available to residents of Siler City and surrounding communities, close to home.

“It was important for UNC Health to provide these services because previously mothers had to drive an hour or more to get maternity care,” said Jeff Strickler, president of Chatham Hospital. “We have a close partnership with several community partners on this project, working hand-in-hand with the County health department and Piedmont Health Services. Our staff knows that Chatham Hospital is on the cutting edge with this project, and going against the national trend, so in some ways the eyes of the country are watching us.”

Chatham Hospital expects to deliver up to 120 babies during the first year, and increase that total over time. The five-bed Maternity Care Center is designed to meet all the needs of low-risk mothers and newborns.

“Our Midwifery and Family Medicine Physician model is unique because we offer a family centered approach to mothers and families throughout their pregnancy, labor and birth,” said Dr. Dana Iglesias, Medical Director of the Maternity Care Center. “The addition of maternity care will be another boost to our ongoing work at Chatham Hospital and provide much-needed care to our community.”

One goal of Chatham Hospital’s new Maternity Care Center is to promote birth equity in our rural community, and improve important health milestones including maternal and infant outcomes.

For more information, visit www.chathamhospital.org/baby or call 919-799-4420.

Media Contact: Alan Wolf, 919-218-7102, 

About UNC Health

UNC Health is an integrated health care system owned by the state of North Carolina and based in Chapel Hill. UNC Health is committed to empowering health, not just health care. We are proactively focused on healthy-based, personalized care, changing people’s lives for the better.

UNC Health is comprised of UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, ranked consistently among the best medical centers in the country; Pardee UNC Health  in Hendersonville; Chatham Hospital in Siler City; Johnston Health in Clayton and Smithfield; UNC Lenoir Health Care in Kinston; Wayne UNC Health Care in Goldsboro; Caldwell UNC Health Care in Lenoir; Nash UNC Health Care in Rocky Mount; UNC Rockingham Health Care in Eden, Onslow Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, UNC REX Healthcare and its provider network in Wake County; and the UNC Physicians Network.

For more information, please visit www.unchealth.org.