Important information about Sacred Heart Hospital Mother/Baby Unit
Updated: October 23, 2025
Like all hospitals across Georgia, St. Mary’s Sacred Heart continues to face significant challenges. To ensure the sustainability of St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital and address these increasing challenges, St. Mary’s Health Care System will be consolidating labor and delivery services into one location at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens. St. Mary’s Medical Group will also discontinue care at Clear Creek OB/GYN in Lavonia. This transition will take effect in late October.
This decision follows an extensive 18-month discernment process that included intensive efforts to recruit additional physicians, create new partnerships, and pursue incremental funding sources. Key drivers behind the need to consolidate labor and delivery services were changing demographics in the Sacred Heart region, especially an aging population, physician recruitment challenges, and increasing outmigration for labor and delivery services. Recent Congressional cuts to Medicaid solidified this decision.
St. Mary’s takes great pride in and is thankful for the exceptional care provided in the Mother-Baby Unit. The dedication of our staff, physicians, and the meaningful role this unit has played over the years has been outstanding. Our exhaustive discernment showed this difficult decision was necessary to continue serving our community and its evolving care needs. We remain committed to supporting patients and colleagues through the transition.
Patients have been contacted and will be supported with a smooth and safe transition of care to St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens or other area facilities and providers. St. Mary’s Family Birth Center in Athens includes a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a c-section suite, lactation education and support, and a facility that allows mothers to labor, deliver, recover, and receive post-partum care in one room. Patients in the Sacred Heart service area can choose to receive labor and delivery care at other hospitals closer to where they live.
In the event of a medical emergency, Sacred Heart Hospital’s Emergency Department is led by board-certified emergency medicine physicians and is fully capable of evaluating, stabilizing and treating all patients, including those seeking gynecological and obstetrical care. As in all emergency departments, if a higher level of care is needed, the patient would be transferred by ambulance to the nearest appropriate facility.
St. Mary’s is committed to supporting impacted staff and colleagues who wish to continue their employment with St. Mary’s in finding appropriate positions.
Frequently asked questions
St. Mary’s Family Birth Center in Athens is happy to accommodate all mother/baby needs. The unit features compassionate and experienced staff, dedicated OB hospitalists, spacious labor-delivery-recovery-postpartum rooms, a level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), lactation support, and extensive patient education. We can assist you in transferring your care and selecting an OB/GYN in the Athens area to provide you with prenatal care.
Please note that you are free to choose the birthing facility that best meets your needs. Several other facilities in the region, in addition to St. Mary’s Athens, offer labor and delivery services.
First contact your insurance provider to find out which OB/GYN providers in the region are in-network with your plan. Then call Clear Creek OB/GYN for support in transferring your care to your new provider.
For a current list of insurance plans accepted by St. Mary’s Hospital, click here.
Please note that your choice of OB/GYN provider may impact which hospital you deliver at, since the physician may deliver at only one hospital. If you choose to deliver at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens, we will help you transfer your care to our OB hospitalist team, which provides care while you are in the hospital, but you will still need to find an OB/GYN specialist in the community for your pre-natal and post-natal care.
Your medical records will continue to be available to you. If you are a current patient at Clear Creek OB/GYN and need your medical records, please call (706) 356-7805 and choose option 1. If you have received care at St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital, you can access records from your hospital visit through MyChart or by calling our Release of Information office at (706) 389-3360.
Sacred Heart Hospital’s Emergency Department is led by board-certified emergency medicine physicians and is capable of evaluating, stabilizing and treating all patients, including those seeking gynecological and obstetrical care. As in all emergency departments, if a higher level of care is needed, the patient would be transferred by ambulance to the nearest appropriate facility.
Changing demographics in our region, physician recruitment challenges and increasing outmigration for labor and delivery services are the main causes. Recent Congressional cuts to Medicaid solidified this decision. The decision to consolidate labor and delivery services follows an extensive18-month discernment process that included intensive efforts to recruit additional physicians, create new partnerships, and pursue incremental funding sources.
No. Sacred Heart will continue to provide all other services with the high-level care and higher-level caring our community expects and deserves. We remain committed to providing other women’s services needed in our region, including mammography, imaging, primary care, women’s heart care, and general and robotic surgery. We also remain committed to expanding access to care for critical community needs identified in our 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment, including primary care, cardiology, orthopedics, general surgery, wound care and more.
St. Mary’s Health Care System and our parent ministry, Trinity Health, are committed to the sustainability and growth of Sacred Heart Hospital. We purchased the hospital in 2015 to ensure the people of its region continue to have local access to care that meets the changing needs of the communities we serve, including the realities of an aging population. We are actively working to create and grow vital services such as cardiology, stroke care and surgery to meet the healthcare needs of our community for decades to come.