Breanna Gallardo, Dr. Christopher Ricketts and Alyssa Morrison are part of the Woodlawn Health obstetrics program in Rochester. Josh Flynn | Pharos-Tribune
Woodlawn Health calls their maternity ward a pregnancy oasis.
While Rochester’s Woodlawn Health (1400 E. 9th St.) has a beautiful facility with well-trained physicians and staff, the reality is that the hospital is an oasis in a region of Indiana that lacks options.
What if Woodlawn Health wasn’t in Rochester?
It’s a 47-mile drive to South Bend. Warsaw is 32 miles away.
“That’s all you have to the north,” said CEO Alan Fisher. “That’s what makes our oasis even more critical.”
“If you look directly west of Fulton County there is not a single delivering county,” said Alyssa Morrison, director of Woodlawn Health obstetrics. “For some people in that area, the fact that we are 20 to 30 minutes away is a huge component. Not everything always goes perfect for those moms. But we want to try to be here for them.”
Fisher said that Fulton County is surrounded by maternity deserts, meaning there are no hospitals that provide maternity care.
Woodlawn Health is the main source of maternity care for 10 counties, and that includes some people living in Cass and Howard County.
“We were fortunate enough though to have the right team in place and our concept is to be the maternity oasis,” he said. “But we need the help of our local politicians out there, the legislators that are out there, to assist us in not only getting additional funding but to help us maintain what we have.”
Dr. Christopher Ricketts, a family doctor who also provides OB services, has been with Woodlawn Health for 20 years. He said while the hospital doesn’t have the resources to do everything, they pride themselves on doing what they can do very well.
“We have an excellent team of both obstetrical and pediatric providers here who provide excellent care,” he said. “That has allowed us to weather storms that have closed smaller hospitals. It’s allowed us to continue to have patients trust us with their healthcare, both pregnancy, post-partum and pediatric that allowed us to be a thriving hospital.”
“We are very fortunate that we are able to keep (our hospital) open because we are a rural hospital,” said Paula McKinney, chief nursing officer and vice president of patient services. “We have access to 25 beds. So, we are not big. We are not even medium sized. So, to have the providers here and the nursing staff so that we can stay open, that is very, very important.
The University of North Carolina’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research reported that since 2010 151 rural hospitals have closed or now offer less services. The numbers are overwhelmingly in the Eastern and Midwestern United States.
Among the services provided by Woodlawn Health in their maternity ward is treatment for high blood pressure, diabetes and care for newborns who need respiratory support. They offer free educational support such as lactation classes or Baby 101 to help families and grandparents who might want to freshen up skills.
Parents in need of a crib can get help from the Cribs for Kids program.
“Safe Sleep is a big program for us, trying to educate moms and dads, grandparents, everybody about (putting sleeping children on their back) instead of on their belly,” said McKinney. “Don’t put a little infant baby in bed with you at night because you could roll over on them and suffocate them. So, a lot of education going on around there.”
Morrison said they are building new programs focused on mental health and post-partem depression and anxiety.
Some of the indicators that show a mother might need help for these issues include feeling like they can’t get out of bed, if family members notice a change in personality and attitude, the inability to develop new sleep patterns and feelings of being overwhelmed.
“If it crosses your mind to ask (about mental health), please ask,” said Ricketts. “I’d much rather people ask ‘is this normal?’ than presume its normal.”
Ricketts also encouraged women to seek out doctor’s care when they decide they are ready to try for a baby, saying it’s a good opportunity to see if women are in a good place health-wise to do so.
“We wish it happened more often than it does,” he said. “Early intervention, regardless of what we are talking about, it’s always easier to put out a fire after it’s already started.”
“We are privileged to have the providers that we have,” said Morrison. “They are excellent at taking care of that whole package and making sure that the mom is healthy during the whole pregnancy, not just the last weeks. They make sure they are as healthy as possible even before becoming pregnant.”
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