MADISON, Wis. — SSM Health announced plans last week to discontinue its Midwifery Program after more than three years of service, leaving four nurse midwives out of a job come the new year.
The four learned of the decision Thursday, one day before patients were notified, and just three months before the program is set to end.
Learning she could no longer do the job she loved was a surprise for Jessica Vaughan, a Certified Nurse Midwife at SSM Health.
We had no idea that the program was on the chopping block,” Vaughan said.
In an email sent to employees by SSM Wisconsin’s Regional President Matt Hanley, staff were notified the decision was made because despite high patient satisfaction the program is unsustainable.
“How are we going to handle the devastation that is going to come from our women and the outcry from the community?” Midwives react to SSM Heath’s decision to close its Midwifery Program. #news3now pic.twitter.com/nZyJ6nw1ly
— Tahleel Mohieldin (@tahleelmohie) October 4, 2021
In a statement shared with News 3 Now, SSM Health officials also said the choice was made after extensive review.
“It was discovered that many women who choose midwifery care choose to deliver their babies with community-based midwives,” it reads. “Because of these trends we are not seeing the number of births needed to sustain the current model of employing midwives within the SSM Health Women’s and Newborn’s program.
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However, according to Vaughan, this evaluation was completed without the input of the women who run the program.
“We were never included in any conversations about the sustainability of this program,” Vaughan said.
A nurse midwife herself, Emily Beaman was hired to start the practice at SSM Health three years ago, and she said the biggest concern she and her team has right now is for their patients.
“We just really feel at a loss for our women and for the community that we serve and wondering just–we just that they would continue to have options,” Beaman said. “We think options are really important.”
SSM Health currently has plans to transition those patients to their OBGYN providers, but nurse midwife Amber Latsch said it’s not the same.
“We just have a different model of practice,” she explained. “We do a lot of hands-on, just physical and emotional labor, support and our physicians are great but that’s something that they really have the ability like the time to do.”
Now these midwives are left wondering what’s next, but despite the uncertainty they know where their hearts will be–with those in their care.
“We’ll be there as long as they let us be there,” Beaman said. “We want to be there.”
Since its founding, Beaman said SSM’s Midwifery Program has had over 300 births in their practice; the program’s last day is set for Dec 31.
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