One-of-a-kind clinic to start serving Martin County expectant moms in September

STUART — A unique clinic is expected to begin motoring to expectant moms in September.

The clinic — or MOM (Maternity on the Move) Mobile — is a prenatal clinic on wheels and the only one currently in operation in South Florida.

"This is a big deal," said Santana Ferris, president of the board of the Treasure Coast Maternity Center, which is partnering with the Martin County Healthy Start Coalition to provide a midwife for the clinic.

Ferris is also the former senior director of operations for Cleveland Clinic Martin North Hospital.

The MOM Mobile will travel to areas in the county with the greatest health disparities such as Indiantown, East Stuart and the Golden Gate neighborhood.

The 38-foot recreational vehicle will host prenatal visits in the back, help women with breastfeeding and eventually provide for pediatric visits up front.

Why the need?

The coalition was "finding that a number of women were not able to get to their prenatal care visit early enough, or frequently enough," said Samantha Suffich, CEO of the Martin County Healthy Start Coalition, and that prompted the need for a mobile unit.

Suffich was making a presentation to the Hobe Sound Community Chest in 2019, when someone asked her what a "pie-in-the-sky" project for the coalition would be.

At that time, Martin County Healthy Start Coalition had a prenatal care program for the uninsured with locations in Stuart and Indiantown.

"We were having issues with people getting into the visits," Suffich said. "If we had a mobile unit, we would be able to go to people, so that we would be removing all the barriers."

Financial barriers to care have already been removed because Healthy Start pays for a portion of that care, she said.

Other free transportation services are available in Martin County, such as Ride United, "but for those that are having to go at the level of frequency that a pregnant woman needs to go, or those that are in the western part of the county, it's just not tenable," Suffich said.

Martin County Healthy Start Coalition took possession of the recreational vehicle on June 20. It will likely go in to service in September.

What else to know

It's best to make an appointment, said Angela Aulisio, director of operations for the Martin County Healthy Start Coalition. Appointments can be made at https://www.mchealthystart.org/mommobile/ as soon as the unit starts making rounds.

When it's busy, women will be able to wait inside the unit and outside in a shaded area with bottled water and handheld fans.

Care will be available to all women regardless of their ability to pay, Aulisio said.

Who is being helped?

The clinic will make it so much easier for pregnant women to make it to appointments, said Cataria Quinn, a Jensen Beach resident and new mom. She had a son in May.

Getting to appointments will be "really convenient" for expectant moms, she said, something that would have been helpful to her.

The clinic may also ease anxiety some expectant moms have in a typical setting — being around so many doctors in so short a time, Quinn said. With the clinic, soon-to-be moms will be around a smaller group of caregivers, she said.

Times and locations

The following is the MOM Mobile's schedule:

∎ Mondays, 9 a.m. to noon, at House of Hope, 2484 Southeast Bonita St. in Stuart

∎ Mondays, 1 to 4 p.m., at Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church at 900 Southeast East Ave. in Stuart

∎ Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Booker Park in Indiantown at 15101 Southwest 169th Ave.

∎ Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in Hobe Sound at 11090 Southeast Federal Highway

∎ Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the St. Lucie Mobile Village, 11500 Southwest Kanner Highway in Indiantown

The mobile unit will be staffed by a medical assistant who speaks English and Spanish, and a certified nurse midwife.

Any woman with a high-risk pregnancy, complications, unexpected issues will be referred to a doctor specializing in high-risk pregnancies.

Routine lab work will be taken at the mobile unit.

Funding for the clinic was provided through Martin County and Impact 100 Martin, a local philanthropic group.

For more information about the MOM Mobile, go to https://www.mchealthystart.org/mommobile/ .

Keith Burbank is TCPalm's watchdog reporter covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com and at 720-288-6882.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: One-of-a-kind clinic to start serving Martin County expectant moms in September