"We are trying to form the Treasure Coast Maternity Center," Samantha Suffich said.
That was Samantha Suffich. She's the CEO of Martin County Healthy Start Coalition. She's helping to spearhead an operation to bridge a major gap.
"As we know, in April, Cleveland Clinic Martin Health decided to consolidate their labor and delivery services to Tradition Hospital, which basically eliminated the local options for Martin County families. So now we are building basically a hub for maternity care in Martin County, which would include clinical services such as prenatal care provided by midwives, overseen by a physician, and then labor and delivery for those that are of normal low risk, and then postpartum care," she said.
For Samantha, though, this isn't just about delivery services.
"But I think the real beauty of what we're trying to accomplish is how this isn't just labor and delivery, prenatal care, clinical care. These are clinicians who are going to be able to communicate with our social workers. We have a home visitation team that provides education in the prenatal and postpartum period so that families are as prepared as they can be and supported as they can be to have a healthy baby," she said.
"If the project comes to light, there will be restrictions as to who can use the services," she said.
"We wouldn't be able to provide delivery care for a family who is more high risk, because that would be outside of the scope of services legally and ethically for someone delivering outside of the hospital," she said.
Why it all matters? Martin County is growing.
"Believe it or not, we are a growing community when it comes to the number of babies born here. We have increased from anywhere between 1,200 to 1,350 in recent years. We also need to make sure that Martin County is an attractive place for people to continue to have their babies. We want to continue to provide care for families as the community is growing," she said.
As the project continues to build steam, the community already has its fingerprints all over it.
"We have formed a task force of community members who have certain expertise that are helping us build this. We have around 30 people who are at the table meeting monthly. We have a committee that is focusing on clinical services, a committee that's focusing on fundraising, as well as a committee that is focusing on the actual building itself," she said.
While the idea is expensive, Samantha says they already have some big backers.
"Right now, it's being estimated that we will need around $8 million to make this happen. We have secured $1 million from the state of Florida, sponsored by Representative Toby Overdorf and Senator Gayle Harrell," she said.
Samantha says they have been in contact with city commissioners across the county, but are eyeing the county commissioners for help.
"One of the pieces of property that we are considering, that we think would be ideal in location that's centrally located for the county, it's adjacent to South Hospital, is actually owned by the county. And we would like to ask the county for an option to lease that property," she said.
As of now, Samantha said that the center is slated for a 2027 opening.