Maternity center supporters appeal

Moms, midwives and moppets mobbed the City Council Chambers Tuesday to plead for support to keep open the maternity services at South Coast Medical Center.

Center officials announced April 8 that the maternity center, which they said is underused and has been operating at a huge financial loss, would be closed in May.

More than 50 parents, with infants and toddlers in tow, and hospital staff attended the standing-room-only council meeting, and 90 letters were submitted to oppose the closure of the sole combination of midwifery and hospital facilities offered in South County.

“Other hospitals do not offer this service because they are out of touch with what women want,” said B. J. Snell, a midwife at the center. “I am not happy with this decision. I don’t know anyone who is.”

Snell and partner Lisa Sherwood have offered their services in South Orange County since 2002. They are the only certified nurse midwives with hospital privileges in South County.

The option of natural childbirth in a supportive atmosphere and the security of hospital facilities at hand are what make the maternity center so beloved, moms and dads from Huntington Beach to San Clemente to the Inland Empire told the council.

“I started at another hospital,” said Laguna Niguel resident Dawn Sawyer, who brought 11-week-old Logan to the meeting. “In four visits, I saw the doctor once. It was not for me. From the get-go, it was tests, tests, tests, and that was not for me.”

Sawyer heard about South Coast’s maternity center at her yoga class and decided to try it.

“It was like night and day,” Sawyer said. “South Coast was peaceful, with such a loving environment.”

Sawyer said advertising might attract more parents.

“We are the best-kept secret in South Orange County,” said staff member Dotti Smith.

It isn’t as if the hospital hasn’t tried to get out the word, according to Councilwoman Elizabeth Schneider, marketing director at the hospital. In a written statement regarding the maternity issue, she said she had ratcheted up promotion of obstetricians and the maternity center since she joined the staff more than a year ago. Schneider was not present at the council meeting.

Devon Cutchings said he and his wife did a lot of research before selecting South Coast for the birth of their child.

“It is an asset to the community,” Cutchings said. “I believe South Coast has a responsibility to keep the facility.”

However revered by parents who have had their children at the South Laguna hospital, the maternity services are underused and the financial losses could no longer be justified when funds are needed to support the aging population along the South Coast, hospital officials said.

Obstetric services are costing the hospital about $1 million a year, hospital chief executive Bruce Christian said.

Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman said the council couldn’t keep the maternity service open, but the public could.

“Go to the doctors in this community and nearby communities where you live and ask them to make a pledge to South Coast Medical Center to use the hospital,” she said.

Maternity center physician Dr. Ken James said the problem is that young people cannot afford to live in the communities most served by South Coast and generally people from other communities do not come to the beach for medical care.

Snell refuted the hospital’s rationale of aging demographics as a valid argument to close the maternity center, citing 2000 census figures that show Laguna Beach and surrounding communities with median ages of less than 43.

“This is the age range requiring reproductive services, and South Coast has a stated mission to service the coastal communities,” Snell said.

Kinsman said enough babies are born to parents in Laguna Beach, Dana Point and Aliso Viejo to keep the maternity ward open.

Snell said the unique obstetrical services also have long-term effects on health.

“Obstetrical services at SCMC have shown a significant decrease in Cesarean section rates through the support of natural labor and birth, rather than the intervention model found in other facilities,” Snell said.

“Another example is the long-term health of infants that have been positively impacted through the breast feeding initiative where South Coast is recognized as a leader in the Orange County area with a very high rate of successful breast feeding.”

The staff has worked for decades to achieve these results, Snell said.

Supporters hope the council can open a dialogue with the hospital to develop a fundraising strategy to continue the maternity services indefinitely, but certainly until the parents already committed to the center have given birth.

“On behalf of all the pregnant women in this room, I hope the deadline can be extended at least to the end of the year,” said Stacy Corbin.