Shortage of Funds for Birthing Center

Hospital administrator Timothy Carda pointed to brightly colored architectural plans for a new obstetrics wing.

“It’s not the Ritz-Carlton. It’s more like the Holiday Inn,” admitted Carda, executive director of Western Medical Center-Anaheim.

Still, when 14 homey, simply furnished labor-delivery-recovery rooms open in early 1992, it will be a major step for the hospital--and for Orange County.

Not only is this the hospital’s first OB unit, but it will also be one of two innovative birthing centers designed to ease crowding at the county’s Medi-Cal hospitals.

“We’re addressing the obstetrical crisis in Orange County,” Carda said.

Last March, the County Board of Supervisors allocated $1.3 million in state tobacco tax money to the Anaheim hospital and an additional $1 million to UCI Medical Center in Orange to build two birthing centers for low-income mothers.

The centers would offer natural deliveries--without anesthesia and with nurse-midwives to assist--to women who had had prenatal care. The New England Journal of Medicine reported last year that birthing centers are a safe, low-cost alternative to hospital deliveries.

County officials were hoping that the new centers would open this year to relieve crowding at Medi-Cal maternity wards. At the time, some wards were so crowded that women delivered babies on gurneys in the halls.

However, as a baby boom continues, birthing centers may not help much, county officials conceded.

“I don’t believe that is going to solve the problem,” said Marianne Maxwell, chairwoman of the county’s Perinatal Task Force. Noting that Medi-Cal hospitals now run 109% above capacity in deliveries, she added: “The major problem is increasing demand--along with decreasing ability to handle it” as more hospitals quit the Medi-Cal system.

Another problem: While UCI’s birthing center is on schedule and expected to open by summer’s end, Western Medical Center-Anaheim’s facility is six months behind.

Adding to those troubles, the hospital has raised only $1.4 million of the $5 million necessary for the project. Still, Carda vows it will be built by the first of next year--even if the hospital has to float a bond to finance it.

County officials say they are pleased with the progress of UCI Medical Center’s 14-bed birthing center. Located in an Anaheim medical office building 2 miles from the hospital, the center is expected to deliver 1,700 babies its first year, perhaps 3,000 babies by the second.

Although UCI is now recruiting the center’s seven nurse-midwives, hospital spokeswoman Elaine Beno said she didn’t know when it would offer prenatal care to the first birthing center patients. “We need a more definite opening date,” she said.

At Western Medical Center-Anaheim, the birthing center will be staffed by two obstetricians and three nurse-midwives and will deliver 2,000 to 3,000 babies a year. Architectural plans were submitted three weeks ago to state officials for detailed checks that can take from six months to a year. And starting in August, Carda said, the hospital plans to offer prenatal care for its first birthing center patients.

For all the progress, Carda said, fund raising for the center has been disappointing. Besides its $1.3 million in state money, the hospital has raised an additional $100,000, he said. Meanwhile, dozens of foundations have rejected grant proposals for the birthing center.

“We’ve sent out 50 to 60 packets. And a lot of people say, ‘Yeah, maybe.’ Or ‘You’ve got a great cause, but we’re not interested,’ ” Carda said. “It bothers me. We put up a performing arts center in Orange County and have absolutely no problems getting a zillion, trillion dollars. But you put up a birthing center for mothers and unborn babies . . . and we’re having a lot of trouble.”

Still, Carda said, work on the center will go forward. “We are committed to the project whether we raise the money or not,” he said. “We haven’t gone this far to let it drop.”