For more than 30 years, Martin County Healthy Start Coalition has worked to support local families through pregnancy and early parenthood. Now, the nonprofit is playing an outsized role after the county lost its only labor and delivery unit.
"Our vision is to ensure that every baby is born healthy, every mother is supported and every father is involved," said Samantha Suffich, CEO of Martin County Healthy Start Coalition.
The coalition offers home visitation, prenatal education, fatherhood programs and doula support for families from the prenatal period through a child's third birthday.
It also runs the "mom mobile," a 38-foot mobile medical unit that brings midwives and a medical assistant directly into underserved neighborhoods, including Golden Gate, East Stuart, parts of Indiantown and a neighborhood in Hobe Sound.
"They can receive their prenatal care, labs and all that normal type of stuff that you need when you're pregnant," Suffich said. "We bring it straight to the clients."
The unit does not deliver babies. Instead, midwives collect medical records, labs and ultrasound results that travel with the patient to whichever hospital she ultimately delivers at.
Martin County has been without a local labor and delivery option since [Cleveland Clinic Martin Health consolidated its maternity services to Tradition Hospital in April 2025], leaving families to travel to hospitals in neighboring counties.
"When we don't have a place for babies to be born in county, we are putting undue stress onto our families that are located a little bit further from the hospitals," Suffich said.
She said families now travel to Cleveland Clinic Tradition, Jupiter Medical Center or HCA St. Lucie, with high-risk patients sometimes traveling farther to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center or St. Mary's Medical Center. Many drives take 45 minutes to an hour.
"We are seeing clients who are delivering their babies in the car," Suffich said. "And thankfully everyone has been safe, but it is scary, and it's not how you want to start your baby's life."
The coalition is hosting its "Dancing with the Martin Stars" fundraiser this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at the Lyric Theatre. Local community members have spent months since May learning routines with professional dancers while raising sponsorships, with trophies going to the top fundraiser and top dancer.
Tickets, ranging from $100 to $230, are available through the Lyric Theatre's website. Donations can also be made directly at mchealthystart.org
The coalition has set a fundraising goal of $200,000 and has raised $135,000 so far.
"We need all the help that we can get from the community so that we can take care of our moms and babies," Suffich said.