Where to Give Birth in Maine (2026): Hospitals Compared with CMS Data
Maine has 21 hospitals that provide labor and delivery care, spread across 20 cities. This page compares them on two things: whether CMS has designated the hospital Birthing-Friendly, and the hospital’s overall CMS star rating. Ten hospitals in Maine were excluded from this comparison because CMS’s current data marks them as not providing inpatient labor and delivery care.
10 hospitals on Maine’s general acute-care/critical-access hospital list were excluded because CMS’s current data marks them as not providing inpatient labor & delivery care.
Every hospital in Maine that provides labor & delivery care
| Hospital | Location | CMS Overall Rating | Birthing-Friendly | Maternal safety bundle adopted | Patient experience (HCAHPS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center | Bangor, Penobscot County | ★★★★★ 5/5 | Yes | Yes | 2/5 stars · 60% would definitely recommend |
| Central Maine Medical Center | Lewiston, Androscoggin County | ★★★★☆ 4/5 | Yes | Yes | 2/5 stars · 64% would definitely recommend |
| Down East Community Hospital | Machias, Washington County | ★★★★☆ 4/5 | No | Not reported | Not reported · 63% would definitely recommend |
| Maine General Medical Center | Augusta, Kennebec County | ★★★★☆ 4/5 | Yes | Yes | 4/5 stars · 74% would definitely recommend |
| Mainehealth Maine Medical Center | Portland, Cumberland County | ★★★★☆ 4/5 | Yes | Yes | 3/5 stars · 74% would definitely recommend |
| Mainehealth Stephens Hospital | Norway, Oxford County | ★★★★☆ 4/5 | Yes | Yes | 4/5 stars · 79% would definitely recommend |
| Northern Light Mercy Hospital | Portland, Cumberland County | ★★★★☆ 4/5 | Yes | Yes | 4/5 stars · 85% would definitely recommend |
| Houlton Regional Hospital | Houlton, Aroostook County | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 | No | Not reported | 3/5 stars · 60% would definitely recommend |
| Lincolnhealth | Damariscotta, Lincoln County | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 | Yes | Yes | 5/5 stars · 83% would definitely recommend |
| Mainehealth Franklin Hospital | Farmington, Franklin County | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 | Yes | Yes | 4/5 stars · 69% would definitely recommend |
| Mainehealth Mid Coast Hospital | Brunswick, Cumberland County | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 | Yes | Yes | 3/5 stars · 74% would definitely recommend |
| Mainehealth Pen Bay Hospital | Rockport, Knox County | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 | Yes | Yes | 3/5 stars · 66% would definitely recommend |
| Mainehealth Waldo Hospital | Belfast, Waldo County | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 | Yes | Yes | 4/5 stars · 77% would definitely recommend |
| Northern Light Maine Coast Hospital | Ellsworth, Hancock County | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 | Yes | Yes | 2/5 stars · 58% would definitely recommend |
| Northern Light A R Gould Hospital | Presque Isle, Aroostook County | ★★☆☆☆ 2/5 | Yes | Yes | 3/5 stars · 61% would definitely recommend |
| Northern Light Mayo Hospital | Dover Foxcroft, Piscataquis County | ★★☆☆☆ 2/5 | Yes | Yes | 2/5 stars · 61% would definitely recommend |
| Redington Fairview General Hospital | Skowhegan, Somerset County | ★★☆☆☆ 2/5 | No | Not reported | 5/5 stars · 79% would definitely recommend |
| Cary Medical Center | Caribou, Aroostook County | ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 | Yes | Yes | 4/5 stars · 77% would definitely recommend |
| Calais Community Hospital | Calais, Washington County | Not rated | No | Not reported | Not reported · 71% would definitely recommend |
| Millinocket Regional Hospital | Millinocket, Penobscot County | Not rated | No | Not reported | Not reported · 73% would definitely recommend |
| Mount Desert Island Hospital | Bar Harbor, Hancock County | Not rated | Yes | Yes | 5/5 stars · 90% would definitely recommend |
What CMS does not tell you
CMS has not published a hospital-level cesarean-delivery rate or a severe-maternal-complication rate in its current data release, and that is true nationwide, not specific to Maine, so this page cannot show either number for any hospital listed. A state-level NICU or perinatal level-of-care listing is also left off this page because it could not be verified against a current, authoritative source for Maine.
How we built this page
This list was built by filtering CMS Hospital Type to Acute Care Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals, then excluding any hospital whose CMS Maternal Morbidity Structural Measure (SM_7) is marked “Not Applicable (does not provide inpatient labor/delivery care).”
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Hospital General Information and Maternal Health – Hospital datasets, data.cms.gov. File released 2026-08-13. Maternal-health measurement period: calendar year 2024.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) patient-experience survey, data.cms.gov. Measurement period 10/01/2024–09/30/2025.
