closure of the maternity unit<\/a> at Cleveland Clinic Martin North Hospital. <\/p>\n“The community is definitely growing and there was a big need for this. New labor and delivery, new NICU,” said Dr. Pete Papapanos, an OBGYN at the hospital.<\/p>\n
The expansion comes as the hospital has seen dramatic growth in deliveries over recent years.<\/p>\n
“We’re very very excited about it. We started with approximately 40 delivers a month a few years ago and now we’re up to 140 deliveries a month,” Papapanos said.<\/p>\n
The need has become even more critical amid a nationwide shortage of OBGYNs.<\/p>\n
“It’s really devastating to think about how mothers have to travel 30-60-90 minutes just for a prenatal visit, not even for birth,” Papapanos said.<\/p>\n
Port St Lucie<\/p>\n
Hospital responds to sharp rise in labor and delivery demand<\/p>\n
That challenge is exactly what Martin County residents face daily after their county’s only maternity unit shut down last April due to staff shortages and limited funding.<\/p>\n
“There’s nothing here. There’s nothing in Martin County,” said Katie Douglas, a nurse and midwife.<\/p>\n
Douglas has been following the situation closely and said expectant mothers in Martin County have no choice but to deliver in neighboring counties.<\/p>\n
“Unlike Martin, St. Lucie has stepped up to meet the needs of these moms. They have opened up a new NICU. Both Lawnwood and St. Lucie have made accommodations for very busy scenarios,” Douglas said.<\/p>\n
Douglas said many families remain unaware of the extent of the issue. She adds when expectant mothers learn they must deliver outside Martin County, it creates additional stress.<\/p>\n
“Well, it’s stressful. They have to make different arrangements for family for care for transportation,” Douglas said.<\/p>\n
Douglas hopes someone will step up to provide maternity care in Martin County, similar to what St. Lucie County has accomplished.<\/p>\n
The expansion in St. Lucie County means families there now have multiple quality options for maternity care, while Martin County residents continue waiting for solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mothers in the area, the families in the area are much better off after tonight because they have options,” said Dr. Papapanos. “Not just options, better options.”<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital celebrated the opening of a new floor dedicated to women’s services,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[62398,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-128706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-fell-through-the-ice-wwny","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}