WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Christmas will always be a special holiday for Mistie Laubach's family.
She gave birth to her son Jackson at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital just 30 minutes after Christmas Day in 2017.
The time inside the delivery room with the staff and her family is a time Laubach says she'll never forget.
"Yeah, honestly, they pushed for me though they wanted him born Christmas night. Unfortunately, he wasn't, just shy 30 minutes, but still, they were pushing for me, 'Mistie, you can do it!' You know? 'Make him make him a Christmas baby!' You know? And then everything about my husband and my mom being there as well. You know, my support team," said Laubach.
Her family continued to make memories here as recently as this spring.
"My nephew, my first nephew, was just born three weeks four weeks ago. And he's probably going to be the last baby to be born there. So in our family, you know, so, again, what's going to happen, what's next? Where are these babies going to be born?" asked Mistie.
That's the big question Mistie, and other mothers, in the greater Wilkes-Barre area, are asking now that Commonwealth Health announced its plans to shut down the hospital's labor and delivery services at the end of July, citing a decline in demand as the reason for the closure.
Commonwealth Health says it will work with expecting mothers to receive childbirth services at Moses Taylor Hospital, Geisinger Wyoming Valley, or Geisinger Community Medical Center.
Laubach is also concerned about the future of the staff in the department that she says treated her like family.
"They were great. You know everything about the nurses, the staff welcomed us like they like we lived there. Did everything for us at our beck and call," she said.
Commonwealth Health says all nurses and personnel who staff the OB unit and clinics will have the opportunity to apply to other open positions.
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