There are growing concerns over some of the increasingly limited health care options in parts of rural Minnesota. There have been a number of hospital closures and consolidations in recent years, especially when it comes to labor and delivery services for moms and babies.

But in Northfield, they are bucking the trend, updating and expanding birth services at the hospital.

Northfield Hospitals and Clinics has expanded the OB/GYN practice, adding a waterbirth suite and a 24/7 midwife program. The center’s new birthing suites have everything from refrigerators to birth slings.

“About a decade ago, we made a decision to start strategically reinvesting in our programs,” said Steve Underdahl, President and CEO of Northfield Hospital and Clinics.

“We really saw the handwriting on the wall that birthing centers were going to become regionalized. The number of young families living in rural Minnesota has changed,” he said.

They delivered around 600 babies at the center last year.