800 Births—What Happens When Your Hospital Is Full?
If you plan to give birth in Santa Cruz, Salinas, Monterey or another Central Coast community, Watsonville Hospital belongs in your birth plan.
Watsonville serves roughly 800 births annually. If labor and delivery closes, those births will still happen. Other hospitals would need enough nurses, obstetricians, midwives, anesthesia coverage, staffed beds, and newborn services to receive them.
Labor and delivery remains open. The NICU is closed, and leaders must act while there are still services to preserve.
If Dominican reaches capacity, some Santa Cruz families could face traveling over Highway 17 to deliver in San Jose. Monterey County hospitals could face additional pressure, pushing families farther from home.
Imagine learning during labor that your planned hospital cannot accommodate you. Your insurance card cannot create a staffed bed. Your ZIP code cannot supply another nurse.
Call county supervisors, state senators and Assembly members. Demand immediate staffing and financial support, enforcement of regional medical care agreements, and a public assessment of how displaced births would affect regional capacity. Ask leaders to attend the Oct. 22 town hall with concrete commitments before the possible Oct. 28 board vote.
Dignity Health, Sutter Health, Kaiser Permanente, Montage Health and Stanford Medicine: step forward with staffing partnerships and financial resources.
To our region’s wealthiest residents and Silicon Valley companies: your children, grandchildren, employees, and neighbors depend on these hospitals. You have a personal stake and the influence to help.
We welcome a conversation about a “Netflix Maternity Center at Watsonville Hospital,” or another partnership backed by sustained investment.
Protecting Watsonville’s birth care protects maternity access throughout our region. Please make the call. Send the email. Ask your medical group to act.
Nora Yerena
Watsonville
