Audrey Jacques was scheduled to give birth at Hôpital de Saint-Eustache in Quebec’s Laurentians next week, but the temporary closure of its maternity unit has changed her birth plans. The closure, due to a shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists, is scheduled for Aug. 14 to Aug. 17 and Aug. 21 to Aug. 24 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pregnant women are advised to contact the maternity unit at 450-473-6811, extension 42180, before travelling, where an obstetric nurse will assess and refer them to a nearby hospital, including in Saint-Jérôme or Laval. Jacques is nearly 39 weeks pregnant and is among the women affected by the closure who may have to give birth at another hospital. “I asked myself so many questions,” Jacques said. “It’s not necessarily something that stresses me out. Usually, I trust life to take its course, but I was keen to meet my doctor to ask my questions.” Santé Québec Laurentides told CTV News on Aug. 5 that pregnant women at 36 weeks’ gestation or more had been contacted as a precautionary measure to ensure their care leading up to childbirth. However, Jacques said the hospital didn’t contact her. Instead, she learnt about the temporary closure in a Facebook group with other mothers. She was only told by her doctor the following week at a weekly check-up. “I thought (my doctor) was going to reassure me, but in the end, I saw in her eyes that it was going to be a somewhat chaotic context because there’s going to be one hospital less in the region, which means that the other two hospitals are going to be busier,” she said. Concerns for birth experience Jacques says the drive from her home to Hôpital de Saint-Eustache takes approximately 10 minutes, compared with nearly 35 minutes to one of the other hospitals where she may have to give birth, depending on the time of day. In addition to the distance, she says she’s stressed that the closure at Hôpital de Saint-Eustache will put more pressure on other nearby hospitals, preventing her from getting a private or semi-private room and impacting her birth experience. “I’m also thinking of the women giving birth at Saint-Jérôme – that’s their hospital. The hospital will be overwhelmed because we’ll be flooding in. It’s all rather a nuisance,” she said. Due to the temporary closure, Jacques has been trying, in consultation with her doctor, to induce labour through certain drinks, foods and exercises so she can give birth earlier and still deliver at Hôpital de Saint-Eustache. “With my first child, I didn’t use any of those methods. I just let nature take its course, and under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have been in a hurry to give birth. But it was really this particular situation that made me take action,” she said. “They often say that the second birth goes even faster, so that’s another reason why it might be a bit more stressful this time, because I get the feeling it’s going to go faster.” Jacques says that while she is stressed about the closure, she would have been more stressed if it were her first birth, and she sympathizes with other first-time mothers in her Facebook group. “I think I’m probably one of the less stressed ones right now,” Jacques said. “There are some who find it really stressful, and I understand that too, especially when it’s your first birth, so there’s definitely stress in the group about that.” Several Quebec hospitals affected A shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists has forced Hôpital de Saint-Eustache to close two months earlier in June. Both closures follow a four-month transfer of maternity services from Hôpital de Saint-Eustache to Hôpital de Saint-Jérôme between Dec. 12, 2025, and April 15, 2026. Santé Québec Laurentides says there are currently five full-time obstetricians and gynecologists at Hôpital de Saint-Eustache out of a total of nine available posts. It says it has undertaken several recruitment initiatives to address the hospital’s shortage. However, this shortage extends across Quebec and Canada, according to the Quebec Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AOGQ). Several other health-care facilities in Quebec, including Hôpital d’Alma, Hôpital and CLSC de Sept-Îles, Hôpital de Granby, Hôpital Notre-Dame-de-Fatima, and Hôpital du Haut-Richelieu, have recently experienced, or are currently experiencing, closures due to shortages. With files from Noovo Info’s Juliette Poireau
