“We have a year to find a solution and not close! Myriam Budan, director of the Lilas maternity hospital, welcomed with relief the extension of the right to practice, granted on April 29 by the Regional Health Agency (ARS). “The authorization was extended for a year, following the Covid crisis, she explains. This is not a measure specific to our maternity ward. This establishment in Seine-Saint-Denis, emblematic of women’s rights, is a pioneer in the practice of natural childbirth. Regularly threatened with closure, the establishment was to lose its right to practice in June. Nearly 1,400 newborns are born each year in the Lilas maternity ward.
The regional health agency (ARS), now says “that there is no deadline – neither in June nor in the months to come – concerning the situation of the maternity ward, which continues to operate with the authorization of the Agency. ” A petition launched in “support for the Lilas maternity hospital to avoid its closure” now collects more than 40,000 signatures.
A project still on hold
“We’re going to close, we’re not going to close, we’re going to close, we’re not going to close… This maternity is an eternal restart in search of a project”, regrets Myriam Budan. Maternity may finally be saved, thanks to the group AVEC who wants to take it back. “The project is a bit vague. The only thing that is certain is that this group agrees to take us back and respect our criteria: take over our culture, keep or even label our name, and take over all the staff, ”she explains.
Caregivers share a work culture centered on feminist values, where the woman’s choice takes precedence. “Women decide whether or not they want to have a child, then how they want to give birth, adds David Bries, one of the people mobilized to maintain maternity. They begin by defining their birth plan, according to their needs. It’s very different from some baby factories where delivery is accelerated to make the most of the time dedicated to mothers. »
“Even if it means rebuilding, we want a technical platform and a surgery department next to the maternity ward, continues Myriam Budan. Might as well merge with another clinic, this will guarantee more security and remedy the deficit. “The maternity faces a hole of 4.5 million euros, paid by the ARS. But the nursing staff of the maternity hospital fears a rapprochement with the group, which could impose its logic of profitability. “He has already planned that we should increase the activity”, explains the director. The project has nevertheless been presented to the ARS, which has not yet pronounced.
State responsibility
“One day, we will have to point out the responsibilities of those who did not allow this reconstruction to succeed”, criticizes Lionel Benharous, mayor of Lilas, in a press release published on Thursday on Twitter. The city could offer land for the reconstruction of the maternity ward, provided that the “innovative medical project of this pioneering establishment is preserved: a nearby maternity ward, on a human scale, which respects the choices of women, which recognizes the role of fathers , is committed to equality, guarantees the right to abortion. »
The mayor also asks for “guarantees from the State and from the possible buyer that the ARS will have chosen that the means be released for this reconstruction. On several occasions already, reconstruction projects for this maternity ward have failed. For its part, the ARS ensures that “the State has never stopped supporting the establishment”, in particular with cash aid released in emergency regularly. “We will not close, assures Myriam Budan. But the ARS must agree to the project. »