Waupaca nears maternity desert

Waupaca County has been called a “childcare desert” because of a lack of daycare centers.

With the proposed closing of the ThedaCare birthing unit in Waupaca, the entire county has the potential to become what is called a “maternity desert,” as there will be no place to receive specialized childbirth care for miles around.

The projected closing date is Feb. 15. If the ThedaCare-Waupaca birthing center closes, no one after 2025 will ever be able to say, “I was born in Waupaca,” unless it was by accident. The baby might be delivered by a police officer or a first responder instead of a doctor.

This was discussed at a public forum held on Saturday, Dec. 14 at the Waupaca Recreation Center. Approximately 90 people attended and people were invited to speak about their views on the closing of the birthing unit and also share their experiences in the world of bringing life into the world.

On a folding table were hand-outs about the issue. Some of them were calls for advocacy, including a paper with a pre-written resolution to provide to board members of cities, villages and towns in Waupaca County with the goal to get local representatives to formally request childbirth service to continue in the area.

Another paper was for political pressure and it listed the names and contact information of senators and state representatives with the hope they might step in if enough voices were heard about rural OB unit closures.

Another paper listed the members and contact information of the ThedaCare-Waupaca Hospital Board. The board is composed of Richard Phillipsen, Eric Hendrickson, Jeremy Koehler, Suzanne Undoni, Tim Neuville, Dale Gisi, Jacqueline Anhalt, Ellen Wenberg and Lou Ann Mokwa.

There were also research papers such as “Association of driving distance to Maternity Hospitals and Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes” published by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The conclusion: “Longer distances to the delivery hospital were associated with greater risk of adverse maternal outcomes and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission.”

This led to the most visual handout, a color map of Waupaca County within central Wisconsin created by Dr. Stephanie Lyon. If the ThedaCare-Waupaca Labor and Delivery Unit closes, the nearest birthing centers are Stevens Point, Berlin, Neenah, Appleton and Shawano. The map was shaded in concentric circles to denote the risk of a NICU admission.

The closer a pregnant woman is within the darkening circles, the less of a chance the childbirth will be complicated.

Waupaca was not within any of the circles and the relative risk of an NICU admission jumped to over 49%. Also the distances were measured “as the crow flies” and does not account for driving on curvy back roads to get to a delivery hospital.

Voices
A person with a big stake in this closure was Cindya Gullickson. She stepped up to the microphone visibly pregnant. Her ultrasound was taken at ThedaCare-Waupaca. The next day would mark the start of her third trimester. Her baby is due in March. The child was supposed to be born in Waupaca.

“I have lived in the Waupaca area my whole life. I know most of the doctors here, even more now as I’m pregnant. I continue to meet the labor and delivery nurses. I’ve able to go there the same day and be taken care of by them, usually 20 minutes after calling in. I don’t feel confidant I’d have that experience in a bigger hospital. I don’t feel comfortable that I don’t know the doctors in places like Neenah and Stevens Point, especially when I have a hospital 10 miles from my house with doctors that I know and trust and a facility that I’m familiar with. There is so much uncertainty and anxiety that comes with giving birth, at least you can except in knowing a place where you can have your baby. If this decision sticks, I won’t know if I will give birth in a large hospital or a waiting room, at home, in an emergency room or even in a vehicle trying to drive to a birthing hospital,” said Gullickson.

She closed her comments by stating that she hopes ThedaCare chooses “community over profit.”

On Dec. 9, 2024, The Business News, a newspaper that covers central Wisconsin, ranked the largest acute-care hospitals in the region. In 2023, ThedaCare Medical Center-Waupaca’s total revenue was $53.55 million. Their total expenses came to $46.56 million. Their total assets recorded were $59.33 million and total liabilities were $455,315.

“I had an opportunity to work at lots of hospital over the course of my career but there was no place that I felt more at home than the Waupaca OB,” said Jane Peterson, who served as a local midwife for 32 years. “

“When someone has a baby with a provider, that dedication that occurs between that provider and that mother creates a lifelong bond. It matters when the person that helped that baby be born is at the edge of a soccer field, and that child who knows that person that helped them into the world. It weaves the fabric of a community. I think this closure makes holes that we can’t yet imagine,” she said.

Marci Reynolds, a former nurse at ThedaCare for many years, pointed out closing the birth center will not help with recruiting doctors to Waupaca. Likewise, it will not help to attract young families to the area – something that the city government has sunk much money and hours into and is currently exemplified by building the River North subdivision, a neighborhood of apartments and starter homes.

“The rug is being pulled out from under that whole plan. Without even consulting the city, this decision has been made. Without thinking about the things it’s all going to affect. It will affect every industry that hires people. No being able to get families to move here is a huge, huge thing. We may not see it in February but we will see it one or two years down the road,” said Reynolds.

Sandy Testin, an educator and lactation consultant in Waupaca for 26 years, said she never lived in a small city. She had her first child in Omaha and her second child in Madison.

“When we moved here, I was terrified about delivering [her third child] in little Waupaca. It was by far the best experience I ever had,” she said.

Testin argued that the decision was made too quickly and that the ThedaCare board members did not have enough information for due diligence. “

I think the board did not get good information. Our doctors were blown away by this decision. We’ve been talking for 20 years about how OB staffing is difficult but people were not aware that we were anywhere near this kind of decision. I think we need to let our board know. Our board voted on this with one person dissenting, the rest of the board approved closing OB. I don’t think they would have done that if they would have known the full story,” said Testin.

Two speakers pointed out the irony of ThedaCare’s namesake, Theda Clark Peters, who died on Oct. 20, 1903 shortly after childbirth. She left behind $96,000 to the community and her brother used it to build a hospital that was later named the Theda Clark Memorial Hospital.