Health district blasts plans to close birth center

Members of the Petaluma Health Care District have rejected a proposal that would permanently close the popular maternity ward at Petaluma Valley Hospital.

The plan is being floated by Providence, which purchased the hospital from the district in 2021. The health care giant says it cannot safely operate the ward because of difficulty staffing the unit with obstetrics and anesthesia professionals.

But district board members, during a public meeting Wednesday evening that at times became contentious, said they thought not enough was being done to preserve the birth center and that closing it would violate the terms of the 2021 purchase agreement. Under that agreement, Providence must keep the birth center open until 2025.

Following a closed session, the board reported that it did not approve Providence's proposal to close the birth center. The district asked Providence for more collaboration and also appointed an ad hoc committee to explore ways to keep the center open.

“The information presented does not evidence meaningful efforts to date to solve the lack of anesthesia services, and there is reason to believe more work can be done to solve the future lack of service,” the district stated after its closed session.

Providence proposed closure of the unit late last year. Laureen Driscoll, Northern California region chief executive for Providence, attended the meeting Wednesday to respond to a number of questions from the district regarding the plan.

District board vice president Elece Hempel objected to what she said was Providence's call for collaboration in closing the hospital's maternity unit. She emphasized that many in the local health care community were willing to work to help keep it open.

“That's collaboration,” Hempel said. “Coming in and saying on this day this system is closing is a violation of the contract. If you read the details of the contract, a violation of that contract means that hospital comes back to the district.”

Board member-at-large Cheryl Negrin delivered some of the strongest comments during the meeting. Negrin described Providence's stance on the matter of saving the unit as “negative.” She directed her statements to Driscoll.

“My trust is gone, I can't trust you at all,” Negrin said.

During the meeting, Driscoll insisted that Providence had done, and continues to do everything possible to staff the birth center. She objected to line of questioning.

“If you want to engage with us in a different way, I'm happy to do that,” she said. “But this is not the tone and tenor in which I plan to respond.”

Negrin said she understood, but wanted to know “why there has been no compassion or empathy” for what would happen in the community if the birth center closed.

Before the meeting started at 6 p.m., supporters of the birth center gathered at North McDowell Boulevard and Old Redwood Highway to protest the proposed closure. Those attending the rally included Petaluma physicians, nurse midwives and obstetric nurses and mothers who had delivered their babies at the birth center.

Denise Cobb, a registered nurse who has worked in the obstetrics unit at the hospital for a quarter century, questioned Providence's efforts to fully staff the unit. “They can't find anesthesia for the price they want to pay.”

Lia Goldman Miller, a Petaluma parent, held a sign that said in Spanish, “No one wants to give birth on the roadway.” Goldman Miller, whose two children were home births, said she used the Petaluma hospital birth center as a backup, in case of complications with her two pregnancies.

“When you want to give birth at home, that's a wonderful choice,” she said. “But nobody wants to give birth on the side of the road. That's not a choice. That's scary.”

Several people at the rally pointed out that closing the Petaluma hospital birth center would create a “maternity desert,” a region with no labor and delivery services, that would span the region from MarinHealth Medical Center to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital — nearly 42 miles apart.