Project ECHO

🩺 “The closure of local labor and delivery service did not simply create an inconvenience. It shifted enormous physical, financial, and emotional burdens onto pregnant women and their families, many of whom were already facing significant challenges. Families with limited income, limited transportation, unstable housing, and other barriers are now expected to travel long distances to receive care that should be available close to home. It affects mental health, family stability, financial security, and children. It creates trauma that can last for years, and in some cases, generations.” Jaylyn Randles, CPSW, Full-Spectrum Doula, shared her reflections during Voices from the Void: Lived Experience and Clinical Response to Maternity Care Closures.

On Monday, June 29, healthcare providers and community leaders joined the New Mexico Improving Perinatal Health ECHO Program for Voices from the Void. The virtual conversation highlighted how the sudden shuttering of birthing hospitals and obstetric facilities have left communities across New Mexico without access to maternity care.

🎯 Six key learnings emerged from the conversation.

1️⃣ Maternity care impacts health and wellbeing across the lifecycle. Expanding access to maternity care supports healthy families and communities.

2️⃣ Local healthcare providers are experts in the maternal and child health needs of their communities. Maternity care closures disconnect families from local expertise.

3️⃣ Families that live in maternity voids often drive hours to receive routine maternity care. For women with high-risk pregnancies, traveling long distances places them at further risk of experiencing birth complications and traffic accidents.

4️⃣ Families in San Miguel County, Guadalupe County, Mora County, and Colfax County – an area larger than the state of Massachusetts, at 13,000 square miles – do not have community-based maternity care and must travel to Santa Fe for delivery.

5️⃣ Recognizing the long distances families drive for care, organizations, including First Born Los Alamos, provide pregnant women with emergency birthing kits for their cars.

6️⃣ Healthcare providers and organizations are delivering much-needed maternity care to communities – despite unexpected closures – through collaboration and problem solving.

We would like to thank our speakers for sharing their experiences and illuminating the impact of maternity care closures across New Mexico: Abigail Reese, Ph.D., CNM; Connie Trujillo, CNM; Connie Liu, M.D., OB-GYN; Sharon Ransom, M.D., OB-GYN; Ann Ruge, CNM; Jaylyn Randles, CPSW, Full-Spectrum Doula; and Kristi McBride, Executive Director, First Born Los Alamos

🔗 Learn more about joining the New Mexico Improving Perinatal Health ECHO Program: https://iecho.org/public/program/PRGM169083413745250ORYXB4DM