With about 70 births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age annually, Tulare County has one of the highest fertility rates in California.
Tulare County is also struggling to maintain enough doctors to provide essential maternity care. Agreements between doctors and hospitals are ending and obstetricians are changing their practices and sometimes moving out of the county or out of state. Some obstetricians have decided they no longer want to deliver babies. Many OB/GYN medical practices no longer accept new patients and in the most extreme instances, hospitals no longer accept maternity patients.
At Kaweah Health Medical Center, Tulare County’s largest hospital, about 400 babies are delivered a month. Yet the hospital’s principal OB/GYN practice and Kaweah Health ended their relationship in December.
While Tulare County remains among the top five in California in birth rates, it is also becoming among the least-served in maternity care.
In short, it’s becoming harder and harder to have a baby in Tulare County, a growing problem afflicting the entire state and nation.
“OB/GYN: Having a Baby in Tulare County” is the topic this month for Tulare County Voices at 210, the monthly forum co-sponsored by the Visalia Times-Delta and First Presbyterian Church. The forum will be at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 11, at 210, 210 W. Center Ave., Visalia.
The forum will be moderated by Melinda Morales, Director of Outreach and Communication at CASA of Tulare County and former associate editor of the Visalia Times Delta.
With the help of an experienced panel of local experts, we will explore the availability of local women’s health-care professionals, the changing landscape in the field, and the options for women for their prenatal and obstetric care.
The panel is:
- Ryan Gates, chief ambulatory officer at Kaweah Health;
- Rita Barron, C.N.M., a nurse-midwife with Visalia Women’s Specialty Medical Group;
- Dayna Holmes, Care Pregnancy Resource Center in Visalia;
- Family Health Care Resource Center.
The changing nature of the field means that the standard model looks quite different for maternity care than it did just a few years ago. It is less likely that an OB/GYN doctor will be the same one to provide expectant mothers care from prenatal to delivery. Different kinds of specialists, from certified midwives to laborists, might become involved. In some cases, women will deliver their babies at hospitals in a different city from where they received prenatal care.
These have far-reaching implications for local women, and the forum will seek answers to their questions:
- What is the situation now?
- What options do women have? Will they have their choice of caregiver?
- How many doctors deliver babies?
- Are numbers of births increasing?
- Who is going to deliver the next generation if so many doctors are leaving the OB/GYN practice.
It’s worth noting that Kaweah Health Medical Center opened a new and expanded birthing center, while Tulare Adventist closed its maternity wing.
Providing for growth is an important objective for any community, and anticipating that growth in births is the first step. This is a conversation that involves everyone.
Plan to attend the forum on March 11 and join the community conversation.