UnityPoint Health — Grinnell awarded $1 million for obstetrics unit expansion

GRINNELL — UnityPoint Health — Grinnell Regional Medical Center’s current capital project to expand and remodel the labor and delivery unit has been awarded a grant of $1 million in federal appropriation for fiscal year 2026.

The project was one of 15 projects within Iowa’s Second Congressional District selected to receive funding through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Community Facilities Programs for essential rural community infrastructure.

This highly competitive funding program is led locally by Congresswoman Ashley Hinson.

“The team at the Grinnell Regional Medical Center Labor and Delivery Unit goes above and beyond to ensure expecting mothers in Iowa have healthy pregnancies and deliveries. Women shouldn’t have to drive over an hour to see their OB during pregnancy,” said Hinson, according to a press release from UnityPoint.

“I was proud to secure federal funding to help Grinnell expand so more mothers and their babies can access quality care closer to home.”

“We remain dedicated to providing high-quality obstetrics care for patients and families in our rural region,” Laura Juel, vice president of nursing and clinical services at GRMC, said in the press release.

“This funding will enhance the obstetrics department at GRMC and elevate the care we provide to expecting parents,” said Juel. “Modernizing the unit and increasing our number of labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms is what’s best for our growing number of patients and for the vitality of our rural communities.”

As of November 2025, 62% of rural Iowa hospitals no longer have an obstetrics unit, leaving only 35 rural hospitals still providing OB care. In addition, 33% of counties in Iowa also have no OB providers and no facilities offering delivery care, leaving women driving an average of 30 minutes to a birthing hospital.

GRMC is the only hospital with a labor and delivery unit in Poweshiek, Marshall, Iowa, Jasper and Tama Counties, UnityPoint said. In 2020, 155 babies were born at GRMC, a number that has steadily increased each year, with 249 babies born at GRMC in 2024.

Through October 2025, 279 babies have been delivered at GRMC.

“The support we’re receiving is essential to the continuation of the maternity services we provide in our hospital and clinics,” says Cherish Hansen, OB nurse manager.

“Each dollar raised — from area businesses, individuals and awarded funding with the support of our state offices and legislators — is instrumental in UnityPoint Health — Grinnell’s complete continuum of perinatal care, including prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care and support for our rural patients and communities.”

As a purposeful leader in rural maternal health care, UnityPoint Health — Grinnell is a multi-year recipient of the maternal health Center of Excellence grant, first awarded in December 2021 from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, according to the press release.

The multi-disciplinary team of GRMC maternity, Public Health and OBGYN Clinic, focuses on maternal health stabilization, growth and outreach, including prenatal and postpartum clinic visits, lactation support, postpartum home visits, perinatal education and postpartum support group.

In June 2023, GRMC Foundation launched Delivering Our Future, a capital campaign focused on raising funds for the GRMC OB department expansion and renovation to add a fourth labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum room as well as update existing rooms to accommodate the expected continuing upward trend of OB deliveries at GRMC.

To date, funding secured for GRMC’s labor and delivery renovation project in awarded money, cash and pledges totals $2,431,878 — and with the 2026 Community Funding Project award, GRMC has a combined $3.4 million, exceeding the original project goal of $2.5 million and just on the cusp of the updated estimated project completion total of $4.1 million.

Phase I of the obstetrics unit expansion and renovation project is nearly complete. This phase consists of a newly extended entrance to the unit, and a new postpartum/recovery room and clean supply room. Phase II is anticipated to begin in early 2026.

Learn more about UnityPoint Health — Grinnell’s commitment to stabilize and grow OB care and ways to support the campaign at uph.link/DeliveringOurFuture.