Maternity ward closures create a hole in California communities

By John McCh, special for Calmatters

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

A few months ago, I worked on my last night as OB/Gyn for labor and delivery at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale in Los Angeles County. I wanted my team of doctors, nurses and other staff to get together for the last time and to contact before closing the unit.

There were no patients in the labor rooms, there were no newborns in the nursery, and the halls were silent. So different from the nights when we got together to help so much and we were proud every time we were helping a new mother who came home with her baby. The ambulances have already been told to take pregnant patients elsewhere. Patients were deferred in other hospitals.

In the silence of the postpartum ward, some employees said they were born here; Others told stories of celebrating the births of friends and family members. Many have talked about how meaningful it is to be able to show their children in the carts in which they were warmed after birth. This reminded me that when I was a child, every time we passed the hospital where I was born, I removed, believing that the bricks also remember me.

Today as hospitals and even more Labor and deliveries Near California and across the country, many will not have these memories. Even more tragic is that pregnant patients in many areas of the country will have a much difficult time to have a safe birth.

Nearly 60 hospitals and labor and supplies In California have been closed since 2012; approximately 30% They were in Los Angeles County. Usually, when we think about the problems of access to motherhood, we think about rural areas where geographical compounds are associated with years of problems. Over half of the rural counties in the United States are without access to obstetric care. But according to Recent studiesOne third of US city hospitals do not offer obstetric services in 2022.

California labor and deliveries are closed for several reasons. Throughout the country, the recovery of obstetric services is not up to date with inflation, forcing hospital administrators to decide whether they can provide services that cost more than the payment they receive. Births in the United States are also decreasing. And the high cost of homes, especially in places like California, pushes people to start families further than cities.

California labor and delivery units are closed at speed three times faster than in other parts of the country.

A fewer hospitals mean longer waiting times for pregnant patients -including in the emergency room, where they will be increasingly accepted to go instead of labor and deliveries. Many emergency medical providers, without specially trained staff, are not equipped for the stabilization and treatment of pregnant patients.

During the winter months, when many patients are present with symptoms of cow and influenza, the emergency room ward can sometimes last for hours. A pregnant woman may have complaints – stomach pain or some discharge – which seem insignificant enough to place other patients in front of her. But they can actually show a condition such as premature labor or torn membranes, which requires emergency action.

State and federal legislators work to deal with these problems. Last year, the American Obstetrician College -Gynecologists (where I serve as chairman) approved the California legislative body adopted AB 2490The Law on the Emergency Aid Program for Reproductive Health to provide funding, training and technical assistance for reproductive health for the hospital’s emergency departments. But Governor veto the account Due to budget problems.

In February a bilateral group of American senators presented Rural Obstetricity ActS The legislation will provide, among other things, funding and resources to create obstetrics for emergency training in health establishments in rural areas that do not have specialized units of work and delivery. Last fall the Senators presented Save the local act of obstetricsTo help city hospitals with a high need to cope with the high cost of operating labor and delivery.

Meanwhile, labor and delivery units continue to close.

In the part of the La County USC Verdugo Hills County, other hospitals provide maternity services. So our patients will not feel the highest effects of labor loss and a delivery ward. But nurses continued and many doctors have opened new offices elsewhere.

A hole remains in this community and memories. Unless we prioritize to withdraw individual work and delivery units, the Californians will continue to sacrifice pieces of their past – and the ability to safely give birth near the home for years and years to come.

This comment was adapted by an essay produced for Zócalo Public SquareS

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.