Centra Southside Community Hospital is set to close its labor and delivery unit and OB/GYN services in Farmville on Dec. 19 as part of a consolidation of women’s health care with their Lynchburg facilities.
The closure in Farmville fits a growing national pattern: rural maternity units are disappearing faster than communities can adapt.
As birth centers shut down, pregnant women in smaller towns are forced to travel farther for care. For residents in Farmville, the nearest full-service labor and delivery unit will now be an hour or more away.
Centra decided to close the unit for a variety of reasons. According to Centra’s statement, declining birth rates and recent reductions in federal healthcare funding played a role. President of Centra Southside Community Hospital Thomas Angelo added in a recent interview with The Farmville Herald, a local news outlet, that staffing the unit was also a challenge.
Centra said staff are reaching out to all affected patients, and there are a few options that remain in the area for prenatal care.
One is Central Virginia Health Services, a federally qualified health center in Farmville, which has midwives who see patients.
The other is Centra’s Emergency Department — the staff is trained to stabilize and care for patients before transfer. They can deliver babies, too, according to Angelo’s interview with The Herald.
Patients who choose to continue seeing Centra providers will be able to transfer their care to the system’s Lynchburg facilities or another site of their choice, the statement said.
What is happening in Farmville is part of a national trend. In 2025, 27 rural hospitals have shut down or have scheduled the closure of their labor and delivery units according to a report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a national policy center focusing on promoting affordable, patient-centered health care. In 2024, 21 units were closed.
The reasons for the closures are similar to Centra’s — a national shortage of healthcare providers, declining birth rates, and low reimbursement rates from private insurance and Medicaid that pay hospitals less than what it costs to deliver babies, making maintaining birth units unprofitable, the report said.
State legislators have put forward some initiatives focused on maternal health outcomes, including money in the state budget to support OB-GYN residencies, Virginia Mercury reported.
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