Benjamin Segobaetso – Local Journalism Initiative
Published online September 23, 2026, at www.pontiacjournal.com
MRC PONTIAC – For expectant mothers in rural Quebec, the disappearance of a small hospital’s obstetric unit can turn childbirth into a long-distance journey, one that local leaders in Pontiac say carries medical risks and threatens the future of rural communities.
MRC Pontiac mayors are pressing the Quebec government to find what they call concrete solutions to preserve obstetric services at rural hospitals, including the Pontiac Community Hospital in Shawville, where maintaining maternity services has been a long-standing challenge.
At their September 17 meeting, mayors unanimously adopted a resolution warning that obstetric care in smaller hospitals is becoming increasingly precarious, with staffing shortages contributing to service interruptions and closures across the province.
The resolution calls for Quebec to consider measures including stronger recruitment and retention incentives, mobile nursing teams, greater involvement of nursing assistants in childbirth care and better coordination of existing health-care personnel.
Warden Jane Toller, who read the resolution during the meeting, placed Pontiac’s difficulties within a broader provincial problem. The resolution identified a dozen communities where obstetric services have been affected, including Pontiac, Ville-Marie, Maria, Baie-Comeau, Haute-Gaspésie, Témiscouata, Amqui, La Pocatière, La Tuque, Dolbeau, Roberval and Lac-Mégantic.
For the mayors, the consequences extend beyond inconvenience. The resolution suggested that proven medical research points to giving birth more than an hour from home being associated with an 18 per cent increase in morbidity and mortality among mothers and babies and roughly twice the incidence of premature birth, low birth weight and the need for intensive care at birth.
The mayors also argue that requiring families to travel for childbirth imposes additional financial and psychological pressures on rural residents. Over time, they say, losing essential health services can make rural communities less attractive to young families and workers, carrying broader economic consequences.
There are operational concerns as well. The resolution notes, an emergency transfer for childbirth can take an ambulance and health-care personnel away from the community, while the patient is transferred to another hospital.
However, the mayors reject the premise that relatively small numbers of births necessarily make high-quality rural obstetric care unsustainable. The resolution counters by suggesting that integrated practice-support programs can allow hospitals with lower patient volumes to maintain standards of care comparable to larger specialist centres.
Their argument is ultimately about more than one hospital in Shawville. As obstetric units struggle across rural Quebec, Pontiac’s mayors are asking the province to determine how far families should reasonably be expected to travel for essential care and what governments are prepared to do to keep that care closer to home.