BLADEN COUNTY, N.C. -- Bladen County Hospital's Family Birth Center closed from Hurricane Florence damages, and recently announced it will not be reopening​.

• Hospital officials say they are not reopening due to declining demand
• Some expecting families delivered their baby elsewhere
• Residents say the center will be missed

In a statement, hospital officials say because of constant declining demand, which is common for rural hospitals, it wasn't worth reopening. 

In the last year, half of Bladen County's expecting families delivered their baby at a hospital in a surrounding county. But, for residents like Sabrina Walston who delivered her baby at the Bladen County Hospital in July, the center will be missed.

"Actually, I was pretty sad and shaken up about it because, actually, the staff there was very nice," Walston said.

Bladen County Hospital's emergency department will still be staffed to triage emergencies, including pregnant and laboring mothers, and will transfer delivering patients to area hospitals as necessary and appropriate.​