Missoula Notebook
No More Deliveries: Missoula Birth Center Will Become Primary Care Clinic
By Sutton R. Stokes, 1-22-09
Community Medical Center will purchase the assets of the Missoula Birth Center, lease the space from the building’s owner, Jolyn Montgomery, and convert the facility into a primary-care practice, under the terms of an agreement reached today. The new practice, which will be operated by Community Medical Center’s clinic, Community Physician Group, will no longer offer birthing-related services. New patients hoping to begin prenatal care there will be turned away, and expecting patients must make other arrangements for their deliveries, says Community Medical Center’s director of business development, Karen Sullivan.
A hospital press release quotes Community Physician Group President Frank Reed as saying that “a robust list of family medicine options” will be offered within weeks.
“We hope to retain the women’s health care focus at the new clinic,” says Sullivan. “The new arrangement doesn’t preclude us placing an obstetrician there or offering gynecological care. But it will be a clinical setting, which means no births.”
Sullivan says the hospital plans to sign a five-year lease of the Birth Center space from Montgomery, the widow of the Birth Center’s founder, Dr. Lynn Montgomery, who died of a heart attack in October. Dr. Montgomery’s sudden death put the center’s future in jeopardy and stirred anxiety among past and current patients, some of whom organized a petition and letter-writing campaign to influence either Community Medical Center or St. Patrick’s Hospital to take steps to preserve the range of services the center offered under Dr. Montgomery’s direction.
But with today’s agreement, Community Medical Center becomes the only medical facility in Missoula offering childbirth services.
“We recognize the community’s desire for a natural birthing option, and we want to make clear that that option remains available at Community Medical Center,” says Sullivan, who explains that the hospital currently allows deliveries overseen by certified nurse midwives, provided an OB/GYN is available for emergencies. Community Medical Center is also breaking ground on a new infant’s and women’s health center, scheduled for completion in 2010. The new center will offer birthing suites similar to those at the Birth Center, says Sullivan, alongside birthing options traditionally found in hospital settings.
Sullivan says that negotiators initially pursued the option of continuing deliveries in the Birth Center space, but this option was abandoned over difficulties related to securing a physician to permanently oversee the center’s operations.
Current patients needing referrals can call the Birth Center at 549-0978 or Community Medical Center at 327-4221.
Here’s the full press release:
[End of article]Community Medical Center to provide family medicine services at Birth Center location
Community Medical Center and The Birth Center in Missoula have reached an agreement under which CMC will provide family medicine services at The Birth Center on Reserve Street.
The family medicine/primary care services will be operated by CMC’s clinic, Community Physician Group (CPG), which is working to address the primary care shortage in the region. CPG President Frank Reed, who noted that a shortage of primary care providers is a serious national issue, said CPG has recruited five new primary care providers since September, and intends to recruit to CPG as many as seven more over the next half-year.
The agreement between CMC and The Birth Center comes after the untimely October death of Missoula obstetrician/gynecologist Lynn Montgomery, M.D., the founder of The Birth Center. Under Montgomery’s guidance, The Birth Center provided natural birthing services to the community.
Missoula’s obstetrics/gynecology community has been working since October on accepting Montgomery’s patients, and CMC continues, as always, to provide natural birthing and obstetric services at the hospital. For referrals, Dr. Montgomery’s patients may call The Birth Center at 549-0978 or CMC at 327-4221.
“We are committed, as we have been for decades, to providing hospital services to women and their children” said CMC President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Carlson. “Dr. Montgomery was an excellent obstetrician and gynecologist, and CMC and Missoula’s OB/Gyn community are committed to continuing an excellent standard of care to our community.”
Reed said “a robust list of family medicine options” will be offered within weeks at the Reserve Street location. Medicare and Medicaid patients will be accepted, as they are at all CPG clinic locations.
What a profound loss for expecting mothers hoping to experience a natural birth experience. Although this is the best "on paper" option for Jolyn Montgomery it's a one-two punch with the loss of her husband and now the loss of this vision that they brought to the community. I remember when the Birth Center was a mound of dirt behind a chain link fence. My thoughts are with the staff and Jolyn Montgomery during this time of transition--again.
Comment By Nathan, 1-22-09What a sad day more Missoula. Community has made a terrible decision.
Comment By Geoff, 1-23-09Wow, that is really a shame, though not surprising. The Missoula Medical community has a long history of hostility towards non-hospital births.
Please consider one of the many fine midwives in Missoula. There *are* options still available, even if CMC has done their best to limit them.
This is the sadest thing I have heard all day. I had so many great plans and hopes for my baby at the Birth Center. Now I feel completely devastated, 7 months pregnant and I need to find a new doctor...
Comment By Dana, 1-23-09I just had a natural birth at the Birth Center 4 months ago. I feel lucky to have had my baby when I did. It makes natural birth much more feasible when you know your team is all committed to it. Obviously, Community might not have been able to find a doc to run the center, but regardless, the community wants non-hospital options for birth. Hopefully doctors will recognize this and begin again in a new building. Missoula wants the option of a freestanding birth center.
Comment By Samantha Hines, 1-23-09I am absolutely heartbroken about this news. What a waste of such a beautiful building and a wonderful ideal.
Comment By Geoff, 1-23-09It's pretty gross what they are saying. They simply cannot conceive of a birth that does not involve a physician. How many kids are born each day throughout the world without the involvement of an MD? The answer is a) most and b) millions. This is a classic case of the Medical profession using their power to create demand for a service that doesn't need to exist. The Medical community has done such a thorough job convincing families they *must* have an OB, that giving birth is DANGEROUS and that complications leading to a C-section are common. None of this is true, but we bought it and now spend billions on healthcare that isn't needed. All of this AND the US has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the industrialized world, so it hasn't resulted in a safer situation.
It's disgusting.
Talk about a punch in the stomach.... us midwives at the birth center are devistated; like a second death first Lynn Montgomery and now the birth center. I, for one, vow to bring back the birth center. I can't tell how long it will take but have started planning a new one. We don't need an MD for a birth center; we need them to accept our transfers and to continue their care. I am also going to do homebirths for those who desire an out of hospital birth. I will be allowed in the hospital as support only. If anyone knows of a place that would make a good birth center, please contact me at Let's unite and continue the vision.
Comment By Sutton R. Stokes, 1-23-09Jeanne,
Not to be a busybody, but it looks like you left off ".com" from your email address, so the correct one would be . Thanks for reading and commenting!
-Sutton
This is just the news I feared. I am so grateful for the birth center's support during my difficult, but ultimately unmedicated and natural, labor and delivery. I know for me it was the right way to go. My big healthy 10 month old son is literally running around the house right now- what a joy!
I, for one, look forward to what Missoula's educated, well respected, and safe midwifery community will come to offer in the future. I know my business will only go to the hospital if I truly need surgery- not if I have an uncomplicated, healthy, and natural pregnancy and delivery. Thanks, Jeanne and your colleagues, for all the effort, time, dedication and support.
And for Community- this was a shame, and a waste. I think the hospital will come to see this move as a mistake and perhaps more importantly, a public relations nightmare. Only time will tell.
very sad news. my daughter is almost 7 months old now. our experience at the Birth Center was wonderful.
Jeanne, Dennie, Katie and all the nurses, Lindsay, and the ultrasound technician, you were all wonderful. You still are. Thank you for all you did for me and my new family and for Missoula. And good luck Jeanne, if anyone can do it, you can!
John Calsbeek
Thanks Community for taking away my only other (insurance-covered) birthing option that I've been looking forward to!
On a non-sarcastic note though, I hope the Birth Center is able to come back and this option is available at some time in the (hopefully) near future to expectant mothers who want this alternative.
Boo to you Community Hospital. My first birth was at a hospital. Then due to lack of insurance and a vague notion that birth could feel better without all the anticipation for interventions, I had a home birth followed by two more because birthing at home felt safer and better all around.
As far as insurance goes. I looked into my insurance company's policy to not cover home birth and discovered that it was based on false information and misconceptions. After a few letters and meetings I managed to have them change the policy and get my last birth covered. The hard part was convincing myself I could do it and that it was worth the effort.
Home birth costs much less than you'd think. So until there's a new birth center - I recommend looking into your options with a thoughtful eye and fierce determination to protect your right to have the birth you desire. A state law protects that right.
And support the new birth center!
I am so disappointed in this outcome. Just over a year ago I spent 16 blissful and life-changing hours in one of those beautiful rooms. Oh, it makes me sad.
It is so myopic of Community to be unsupportive of midwife-delivered babes. I am encouraged by Jeanne's commitment to reopen elsewhere but, in the meantime, how can we get Community to embrace Jeanne's incredibly skilled profession as a midwife instead of marginalizing her work as support staff?
I know home birth will be my next choice but should I transfer to the hospital I want the person I trust by my side.
Nici Holt Cline
I am saddened but ultimately not surprised that Community chose not to support a free standing birth center. I had my first child at Community and my second child at the Birth Center. A drug-free child birth is so much more than the lack of an epidural. It is also caring providers who support you and your choices (providers like Jeanne, Lindsay, Deni and others) It is empowering and awe inspiring, it is being with your baby from the moment of birth and not being separated from your baby for tests. It is being respected by your providers that you know what to do and respecting your own body that it knows what to do...and it does. Sadly, this is easier said than done in a hospital setting with its florescent lights, electronic fetal monitoring, and ob/gyns who are not trained to support a natural birth. That said, doctors and hospitals should be an option for those who choose and/or need that option. However, the birth center was a perfect safe-haven between the hospital and the home birth...and Jeanne if I have another I would be honored for you to deliver my baby!
Comment By Steve Carlson, 1-24-09Having read your comments, I am moved by how committed so many moms (current & future) are to a natural birthing experience. As we at CMC work to finalize our plans for a new Women and Infant Center, I'd welcome the opportunity to have a constructive discussion on what you would like to see incorporated into our new center. Our goal is to develop a program that can accommodate the needs of all patient, including those interested in a more natural experience. My only commitment(s) is a genuine willingness to listen and give honest consideration to your recommendation(s). Perhaps a discussion over a cup of coffee might be a good place for us to start. If interested, give my office a call at 327-4003.
Steve Carlson
President, CMC
what a sad turn of events. for living in such a progressively minded community, i sometimes feel quite disillusioned by the lack of industrial support for such ideals. i realize that missoula is not an easy place for businesses to thrive, but i am still so surprised that a place like the birth center could actually be shut down. no, not surprised. i know how this all works, i go back to the word disillusioned.
i know that this was a business decision for both mrs montgomery and community medical center. and while i am disappointed, i cannot blame community for doing what they can to eliminate their competition. nor do i blame mrs montgomery for doing what she needed to do in this case. i can only imagine what a difficult time this has been, and how difficult of a decision.
in direct response to mr carlson's comment. thank you for the invitation. i would love to sit down with you, and will be calling your office to schedule. but as a woman who is currently 5 months pregnant, i am heartbroken that the option to birth at the center has been taken from me. it feels like a very personal violation. and while there are plans for a similar center to be constructed in the coming years on the community campus, i am now in a very uncomfortable position of finding a new plan that i am comfortable with now, since there is unlikely to be any such facility available to me this spring. i am grateful that i am not much closer to birthing at this point (with less time to respond to the change) and my heart goes out to those families who are.
jeanne, katie, anne and birth center staff, thank you for your service, your skill, your dedication, your kindness and your advocacy. you have touched the lives of many so many families. i see the disintegration of the birth center as a huge loss to missoula and to the medical community. but i also see that the potential to have any or all of you available to begin a new birthing center, or for home birth is something worth celebrating, and something i will gratefully support!
What are the CNMs from the Birth Center going to do? All I see is diminished access to nurse midwives in this community. Don't people understand that midwifery is an integral part of a healthy maternal care system?
I am encouraged by Carlson's invitation. However, this does not change the fact that once again Community Hospital has reasserted its monopoly over "delivery" in this community. Community's plans to add appropriate labor & delivery rooms are too little too late for those of us that are having babies NOW. For shame. It seems like an afterthought or concession. Where was Carlson's invitation when they were kaboshing the Birth Center?
If Community's cesarean rate wasn't atrocious before (31% in 2006 according to hospital sources), we should expect to see another rise from 2009 forward. Many of the women who would have achieved vaginal (and/or natural) deliveries at the Birth Center will experience increased medical management (intentionally and unintentionally) in birth at the hospital under the careful supervision of surgical specialists.
Additionally, the closure of the Birth Center will put stress on the professional midwifery community (homebirth) with an influx of women who would otherwise have delivered at the Birth Center and ultimately would have been more comfortable there than at home. Women "having" to have their babies at home in order to avoid the hospital are not optimal candidates for homebirth.
I highly recommend reading "Born In the USA" by Dr. Marsden Wagner. If that book doesn't wake this community up to the preposterous nature of the medical childbirth industry, then nothing will.
Wow, SteveI Carlson is following this and offering to listen. Take him up on it!!
I gave my first birth at Community Hospital 26 years ago, followed by a home birth 2 years later. Both were good experiences, with the outcome of delightful, healthy children. I would have chosen another home birth, given the right health situation. All that said, the setting can be anywhere you are comfortable. The birth center offered a median between the home and hospital. Why can't the hospital offer a similar setting?
My e-mail to Jeanne bounced. <b >Jeanne</b>, if you have another e-mail address or other point of contact, please let us know. Otherwise, I can be contacted via ICANofMissoula "at" gmail "*dot*" com. I'd be happy to resend you my note.
Comment By Sutton R. Stokes, 1-28-09Hi everyone, thanks for reading and commenting.
Further research has determined that Jeanne's correct email is .
Sutton, that's the email addy I tried. It bounced. But I can track her down other ways! ;) Thanks for sharing this story!!
Comment By Sutton R. Stokes, 1-30-09Well, sorry Kimberly. Maybe Jeanne will stop back by and update that address.
Meanwhile, speaking of updates: http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/community_medical_center_president_to_meet_with_birth_center_supporters/C564/L564/
I had my first baby at Community in 2006. Back then there was talk of a "birthing center" at Community that was supposedly coming soon. Now, they're saying it is to be built in 2010. In the meantime, I hear we can enjoy a natural birth in a storage room there. My second birth was at the Birth Center in 2008. Although some nurses at Community were great, and I loved the lactation consultants, the Birth Center was 1000 times better. Dr. Montgomery attended both births. Dr. Montgomery's death is a huge loss. I prefer to see an MD, but don't know of any that are as supportive of a natural birth or as willing to listen to his/her patients. If someone has a recommendation, please speak up.
Comment By Melinda, 2-03-09Jeanne delivered both of my children (22 months and 3 and 1/2 months old) at the Birth Center in the same exact room both times. I was crushed to hear of CMC's decision but the staff at TBC has been incredible in helping me stay committed to Jeanne and her ideas on pregnancy. I recognize the efforts CMC is making to improve their facilities but I'm sad to say it cannot offer to Missoula what the Birth Center did: the intimacy, privacy, and genuine care every employee expressed. Even Theresa who handled insurance claims treated me like family!
I will partner with anyone interested in healping Jeanne bring a birth center back to Missoula; I will do whatever is necessary to make that happen. My friends from Boston, Washington, D.C., and other metropolitan areas are jealous of my amazing labor and delivery experiences and I hope this community can pull together to again offer the most amazing facility most have ever heard of!
I think what happened is really sad.... I used to work for Dr. M, Jeanne and Deni. The news was hard to swallow. I think that is really comes down to ignorance about the benifits and risks of medical and "nature" birth. It's too bad that Missoula just took a step backwards.
Comment By erin millard, 4-15-09i am also one of the very lucky ones that delivered at the birth center. i also worked at TBC both is clinical during my nursing program through MSU and as an employee. i have experienced hospital delivery and bc delivery and am an undying supporter of what midwives offer. i wonder why Missoula MDs have not posted comments in defense of why they could not do more to prevent TBC's closure. i know from speaking with Mary Windecker, Director of Strategic Planning at CMC, that the OBs felt that the biggest barrier to supporting TBC was that they had full patient loads of their own, and simply didn't have the time to dedicate to the rare possibility that they might have to perform a crash c-section for TBC's midwives. studies show that only a minute amount of labor and deliveries attended by midwives move out of their scope of practice. i invite Missoula OBs to write in defense of why they could not back TBC, given its importance to families in missoula.
Comment By Jeanne Hebl, 7-13-09First of all I would like to thank all the people who have found me via this site and would like to say that I am up and running seeing all kinds of clients. I am attending homebirths....so far 12 successful births. I am seeing women for all sorts of reasons including annual exams.
Just as an update. Katie moved to Billings to work with the midwife group there. Anne is in Iowa with another midwife doing hosital births.
As for me, I've had my own practice since February 09. Located at 2516 S. 14th street W. phone number 541-7115, I will soon have a website.
The closure of the birth center was devestating. I felt we were betraying women and their families by not performing a service they signed up for. Women who were due had to quickly find an MD or CNM. Their frustration was felt by all the midwives who were helpless. I've always said that I will rebuild a birth center for the community. I have a site and a plan, just need the capital. I hope by 1/2010 to open the doors (hopefully sooner).
Thank you again for everyone who has continued to support my practice.
This seems to be a good link to communicate to people about the status of a new birth center. We're moving to a commercial/residential ranch type house where there will be one birth room initially but the second will follow shortly after. Lindsey Wiesemann will be in charge of the birth center with myself attending births. I'm still offering homebirths also. The address is 4202 39th Street, near the intersection of Reserve and 39th. It's about 1/2 mile to the hospital. My phone number is the same as my current office; 541-7115. You can stop by after the first of October for a look-around. We will be announcing an open house shortly after that. Thanks Missoula for hanging in there with me.
Comment By Samantha, 9-21-09Jeanne, that's great news! Hope to hear more soon!
Comment By Angela Curtis, 9-21-09GREAT news for Missoula! Way to go Jeanne & Lindsey!!!
Comment By Jessica, 9-25-09I am so excited to read that last update, I just loved both Dr. Montgomery and Jeanne. I am very glad this opportunity will be available for other women in the area, it is truly a gift and a blessing.
Comment By Sutton R. Stokes, 11-01-09Hi everyone, I thought commenters to this article might like to know that Jeanne's new Birth Center now has a fully operational birthing room. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/missoulas_new_birth_center_is_birth_ready_but_hospital_ban_poses_problems/C564/L564/
This article was printed from www.newwest.net at the following URL: http://www.newwest.net/city/article/community_medical_center_to_turn_missoula_birth_center_into_primary_care_cl/C8/L8/