NORTHFIELD, Minn. — When Northfield Hospital renovated its Birth Center in 2020, it increased its capacity to handle as many as 750 births a year.

It could reach that number soon. Lisa Bauer, vice president and chief nursing executive for Northfield Hospital + Clinics, said the hospital is on track to deliver 700 babies this year.

“Depends on when those December babies want to come, or the January babies, if they come early,” Bauer said.

Since the renovation, Northfield Hospital’s birth volume has increased by 33%, going from 492 babies born in 2020 to 652 last year.

Northfield Hospital’s rising birth volume — and investments into that service line — come as other hospitals struggle to keep their labor and delivery units open.

“We have these little bumps (in births) when an outlying,

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