Statement from Samantha Suffich Chief Executive Office, Martin County Healthy Start Coalition
The Martin County Healthy Start Coalition is very concerned about the decision of Cleveland Clinic to discontinue maternity services at its Martin North Hospital at the end of March 2025. This decreases our community’s level of maternity care access and moves Martin County in the direction of becoming a maternity care desert.
A maternity care desert is dangerous. Pregnancies are unpredictable. What may start out as an inconvenience when a pregnant mother must go out of the county for the actual birth of the baby, becomes life-endangering for both mother and baby not to have ready access to obstetric services if an emergency occurs during pregnancy.
There are more than 1,240 births in Martin County each year. This number has been steady for the past ten years and reached a high of 1,298 in 2022. We are concerned for all of these families who will have to navigate this dramatic shift in access to maternity care each and every year,
Driving Distance Increases Risks. Cleveland Clinic’s decision means expectant mothers will have to travel beyond their home county to deliver their babies. According to the March of Dimes, the farther a woman must travel to get maternity care, the higher her chances of having health problems and complications for her baby. The ideal maximum distance a pregnant woman should have to drive to a delivery room is 30 minutes or less. Martin County pregnant moms will be bumping up against this maximum distance and will need to consider traveling out of county to Jupiter Medical Center or St. Lucie Medical Center as an alternative to the hospital system in their own community.
In addition to the potential health risks, this is also extremely distressing news for pregnant women and their families as it will cause financial strain and increase prenatal stress and anxiety.
It also shifts potential care to our already overburdened emergency medical service infrastructure. If there is nowhere within Martin County to deliver a baby, emergency rooms will be the location of last resort.
Martin County Healthy Start Coalition will be here for our moms and babies, as we have been since our founding over 30 years ago. In early 2025, our MOM Mobile: Maternity on the Move will bring prenatal care to expectant mothers in neighborhoods where families struggle with transportation and access to care. Our doula program continues to be a stable foundation for prenatal education and birth support for families wherever their baby is born. And our maternal safety team will continue to work with all healthcare providers and community partners to make sure that every family receives the respectful care they need and deserve.
Our unwavering commitment to every baby born healthy, every mother supported, and every father involved may feel more daunting with Cleveland Clinic’s withdrawal from the field, but we are dedicated to our community with a renewed vision of hope where we can redefine maternity care for Martin County’s families in the near future.
About Martin County Healthy Start Coalition
Martin County Healthy Start is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that every baby is born healthy. It provides educational and health services to pregnant women, new mothers and their families at no cost, particularly expectant mothers who are at risk for late or no prenatal care.
Part of a statewide coalition, Healthy Start connects pregnant women and young mothers with essential services including prenatal care, home visitations by a nurse or social worker, breastfeeding support, parenting education, car seat and sleeping safety, a free diaper pantry, and access to other community partner agencies through the Betty Moore Prenatal Outreach Center. The David Cardno Fatherhood Initiative, also part of the Martin County Healthy Start Coalition, helps fathers to become more involved in parenting and offers legal assistance to fathers who are separated from their children.
The programs of Martin County Healthy Start Coalition are voluntary and available to all Florida residents at no cost.
For more information about Martin County Healthy Start Coalition and its ongoing programs, visit www.mchealthystart.org, call 772-463-2888 or follow the organization on Facebook.