Allina Health is closing its Faribault birth center and putting its resources into building up the birth center 15 miles away at its hospital in Owatonna, following Mayo Clinic Health System’s decision to discontinue its labor and delivery services there.

Mayo Clinic Health System told MPR News in mid October that it is ending on-call labor and delivery services at the Owatonna hospital about an hour south of the Twin Cities, citing staffing issues and a nationwide shortage of OB-GYN physicians. It will still provide prenatal and postpartum care at its clinic next door.

The hospital is owned by Allina Health, but Mayo Clinic has been providing the obstetrics physicians to deliver babies in the hospital’s birth center under a joint operating agreement.

Allina Health is set to take the ba

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