PHILADELPHIA - There’s a reason it’s not called the “City of Maternal Love.”

Philadelphia’s Health Commissioner Carmen Paris gathered some of the city’s health care leaders yesterday, where they drafted a statement acknowledging the city’s growing maternity ward crisis. A report was also released in conjunction with Drexel University that detailed just how dire the maternity needs have become in the city.

According to the report, there were 22,038 births in 1997 and 21,585 in 2004. The amount of available maternity beds in the city, however, dwindled during that time span from 649 in 1997 to 422 in 2004.

There are currently only 302 available maternity beds in hospitals across the city, but 317 are needed to meet acceptable occupancy standards.

The number of hospitals offering maternity care has dropped as well. A few years ago, Philadelphia had 24 hospitals that delivered babies. Today, there are just 11, leaving many pregnant women with little to no choice on where to give birth.

“The hospitals are running out of capacity,” said Letty Thall, public policy director for Maternity Care Coalition, an organization that advocates for women’s and infants’ health care. “There are less childbirth practitioners now then before, both obstetricians and midwives.

“Hospitals have decided maternity care is not as profitable as other specialties,” said Thall, adding, “That is a major problem for physicians who take the Hippocratic Oath.”

Given the recent closings of Jeans and Frankford hospitals, the city’s decrease in maternity beds doesn’t seem like a problem that will be solved anytime soon.