Family Medicine Doctors Help Fill Maternity Care Gap in South Monterey County

In South Monterey County, family medicine physicians with obstetrics training are stepping in to provide prenatal care after Mee Memorial Hospital closed its labor and delivery unit in 2020. - Dr.

Ruth Pedraza, a family medicine physician at Mee Memorial, completed an obstetrics fellowship at Natividad Hospital in Salinas. - She provides prenatal testing and follow-up care to expectant mothers in King City and Greenfield, though deliveries still occur about an hour away in Salinas.

- A new California law (SB 669) requires critical access hospitals to have standby perinatal services, and a federal bill aims to keep rural labor and delivery units open. While family doctors help bridge the gap, experts like Alecia McGregor from Harvard note that without a local delivery unit, patients face higher risks of complications during childbirth.