Pulaski Community Hospital's obstetrics/gynecology unit expects to deliver its last baby today, and hospital executives are advising all pregnant women who were planning to deliver at the hospital on or after Wednesday to make plans to give birth elsewhere.

Chief executive officer Mark Rader said four doctors who have delivered babies at the hospital for years have decided to resign their medical staff privileges at the facility.

The decision leaves Pulaski Community Hospital, owned by HCA Virginia, temporarily without maternity services.

"To be honest, it was very disappointing," Rader said. "We've provided OB services for a number of years and just have a terrific unit. ... We were very excited about where our OB department was heading."

The doctors' departure, he added, "caught us off-guard."

Rader said Drs. Wayne Pennell, Weldon Shaffer, Joseph Bradley Terry and John Colby notified him of their decision about a month ago.

The doctors are all with OB/GYN of Radford, an independent practice that has delivered babies at both Pulaski Community Hospital and Carilion New River Valley Medical Center outside Radford.

"It's mainly a malpractice decision and a financial decision," said Shaffer, who is president of the practice. "Being an OB/GYN, your liability is so high, and in order to lower our liability, we're just going to deliver from one hospital and that's going to be Carilion New River Valley Medical Center."

Shaffer said the group has covered Pulaski Community Hospital since 1996 but did not have a lot of its own patients who were planning to deliver there.

Rader said he was unsure how many other patients planned to deliver at Pulaski Community Hospital, but he estimated about 150 deliveries were made at the hospital last year.

"The obstetrics unit has a list of preplanned deliveries, and obviously they have made contact with those patients," Rader said. "What we recommend to the community at large is, if you are expecting a baby, make sure you contact your obstetrician or the health department well in advance to make plans to deliver at another hospital."

Any woman in labor who comes to the hospital beginning Wednesday will be medically evaluated, stabilized and then transferred to another hospital for the delivery.

Rader said hospital executives have notified a number of facilities about the changes, including Montgomery Regional Hospital, Carilion New River Valley Medical Center, the Pulaski County Health Department and local agencies that provide care for pregnant women.

Rader said the hospital began searching for at least two replacement obstetricians Friday, but he has no idea how long it will be before the facility will again be able to perform deliveries.

In the meantime, many members of the hospital's 14-employee obstetrics/gynecology unit have been reassigned to other units.

"We're going to still retain as many staff as want to stay here," Rader said.