As Bonner County’s only labor hospital prepares to close, hundreds show up for ‘unhappy hour’ to grieve and share their fears

Sandpoint is losing the family of nurses and doctors who give the town new life, and the community is struggling to deal with the aftermath.

Hundreds of people gathered at Matchwood Brewing Company in Sandpoint Sunday afternoon for an “UnHappy” hour to mourn the loss of the area’s only labor and delivery unit – and, with it, more than half a dozen nurses and doctors.

Bonner General Health announced last month that the hospital would close its labor and delivery unit in May due to financial issues, along with new Idaho laws that criminalize abortion, driving many doctors out of the state.

With the closure, the unit’s nurses are facing layoffs or transitioning to another specialty. At least two of the unit’s four OB-GYNs already have decided to leave the state, along with six nurses.

“We were blindsided,” said Erin Miller, one of the unit’s nurses.

The unit delivered nearly 300 babies last year, with more than a dozen “code stork” deliveries, Miller said, in which the baby’s life, the mother’s, or both are at risk, leaving just 30 minutes for the staff to get them into the operating room for an emergency cesarean delivery.

Now, women in emergency situations will have around an hourlong drive to a hospital that can deliver their baby.

“They’ll never make it,” Miller said.

The loss of the unit means women will have to drive to Coeur d’Alene to deliver at Kootenai Health, or to slightly closer Newport Hospital.

They’ll be greeted by the familiar faces of six nurses from Bonner General who are starting new jobs this week at Newport Hospital across the state line in Washington.

Deniya Bankson, a nurse and former clinical supervisor at the Bonner General Labor and Delivery unit, is one of those heading to Newport. Bankson said she was forced to resign shortly after the closure was announced.

Bankson has lived in Sandpoint nearly her entire life. She gave birth to her sons at Bonner General and saw her two grandchildren born there as well.

The labor and delivery unit was like a family, one of the only units at the hospital to consistently remain fully staffed, Bankson said. She was shocked when administrators notified them the unit would be closing. She blames poor money management.

She felt the hospital was saying the unit didn’t do enough, despite delivering nearly 300 babies last year.

Now, she fears babies will be born in the emergency room or on the side of the road.

“It’s not making anyone safer,” Bankson said.

Clearly a leader in the group of nurses, Bankson smiled, cried, laughed and hugged her way through the evening, feeling supported by the community as dozens of people continued to arrive and crowd into the brewery. Toddlers teetered on the brewery’s patio as their parents hugged the doctors and nurses who delivered them.

The unhappy hour was planned for nurses in part by Matchwood Brewing’s owner, Andrea Marcoccio, who delivered her baby 14 weeks ago at Bonner General.

“It’s such a huge loss,” she said.

The brewery frequently holds community events and is a place for people to organize around issues they’re passionate about, she said.

“Our mission is to connect people through dialogue and laughter, and beer is the medium,” Marcoccio said.

Marcoccio teamed up with Jen Jackson Quintano, a local arborist -turned -activist, who runs The Pro-Voice Project, to plan the event.

The project began after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, sending the abortion issue back to the states. Idaho outlawed all abortions except for in cases of documented rape and incest or because the life of the mother is at risk. New laws also criminalized physicians for providing the procedure outside of those strict circumstances.

Jackson Quintano began collecting abortion stories and put on a stage production in Sandpoint for the public to hear the stories, in hopes of creating a greater dialog and empathy around the divisive subject.

She felt “shock, sadness, outrage” when she heard about the closures at Bonner General and decided to do something about it.

This time, Jackson Quintano began collecting birth stories and helped plan the “unhappy” hour to create a space for the community to grieve the loss.

Her own life was saved by the medical professionals at the labor and delivery unit, Jackson Quintano said.

She had planned a home birth, figuring “if I can run a chainsaw pregnant, I can certainly birth a baby.” But things didn’t go well, and she had to rush to the hospital for a C-section.

“My daughter and I, we wouldn’t be here without that,” Jackson Quintano said.

Many women shared similar stories of joy and tragedy that Bonner General helped them through.

Emma Stanford gave birth to her daughter, Raven, at her home about 40 minutes outside of Sandpoint in a “dreamy” birth experience. Then she got pregnant again but miscarried. She hoped to pass the fetus at home, but it didn’t go well.

She spent an hour in the car “thinking I was going to die” before she could get to a hospital, where she had an emergency dilation and curettage procedure to remove remaining fetal tissue and stop the bleeding. It’s the same procedure used in many abortions.

When she got pregnant again about two years ago with her son, River, that fear lingered. She chose to give birth at Bonner General, where she felt safe in the hands of the doctors and nurses.

Sami Ryan lives about 45 minutes out of town. She chose to give birth at a local birth center about three blocks from the hospital, and knowing more advanced medical care was so close was a huge factor in her decision, she said.

Diana Gore thinks she was the first lesbian to ever give birth at Bonner General when she had her first baby 16 years ago. Despite her “family constellation” being new for many of the doctors and nurses at the hospital, she received amazing care, Gore said.

Gore’s father is an OB-GYN and was worried about her giving birth at a rural hospital, but his fears were assuaged with one meeting with her doctor, Gore recalled. She remembers her father’s work on the early clinical trials for abortion pills and his fears for his safety after a doctor who provided abortions in Buffalo, New York, was killed by a sniper in the late 1990s.

Seeing Idaho criminalize abortion has been difficult for Gore. Idaho’s abortion law only allows doctors to bring an affirmative defense, after being charged with a felony for providing an abortion. That means doctors can argue they performed the procedure to save the patient’s life or had documented evidence of rape or incest.

Dr. Amelia Huntsberger resigned from her position as an OB/GYN at Bonner General over fears she could be charged under new laws for providing medical care, which she detailed in an episode of This American Life.

Dr. Kristin Algoe, a fellow OB-GYN at the hospital, also plans to leave the state.

Algoe said she is “quite shaken up” by the closure.

She spent the last 14 years in Sandpoint building a family with her co-workers in the unit. Now, she plans to move back to the East Coast to be closer to family.

Without the labor and delivery unit, Algoe fears women’s healthcare overall will be reduced in the area, especially with many OB-GYNs leaving Idaho.

With hundreds of people packed into the brewery, Algoe took the stage, her shock evident at the sheer number of people.

“I thought I was going to be meeting with the nurses tonight at the beer hall, drowning our sorrows in a couple of beers and telling old stories,” she said with a chuckle.

The other day, Algoe and a nurse were readying a mother to deliver.

“Right before we got to the pushing phase, the father asked, ‘Does this ever get routine for you guys?’ ”

The doctor and nurse turned simultaneously – the answer was easy, Algoe recounted with tears in her eyes.

“No, it never gets routine,” they said.

There’s one bright spot in the loss of the labor and delivery unit, Algoe said. “I’ve never felt such support in my entire life.”

The crowd, also tearful , cheered.