{"id":33506,"date":"2023-06-09T01:54:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T07:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/protesters-gather-at-southwest-memorial-hospital-after-closure-of-birth-center-is-announced\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:10:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:10:50","slug":"protesters-gather-at-southwest-memorial-hospital-after-closure-of-birth-center-is-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/protesters-gather-at-southwest-memorial-hospital-after-closure-of-birth-center-is-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters gather at Southwest Memorial Hospital after closure of birth center is announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Protesters
Protesters stand in front of Southwest Memorial Hospital on Thursday (Shylee Graf\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

More than 50 people gathered Thursday evening in front of Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez to protest the closure of the Family Birthing Center.<\/p>\n

Materials to make signs were available at the protest, and many people took the opportunity to share their thoughts.<\/p>\n

Signs showed phrases like, \u201cWe need a birthing center here,\u201d \u201cKeep our babies local,\u201d and \u201cCare close to home, unless you are a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southwest Health System on Wednesday announced the temporary closure of its family birthing center at Southwest Memorial Hospital, effective July 1.<\/p>\n

The hospital birthing center will stop taking new patients at 7 a.m. on June 28 and \u201ctemporarily\u201d close on July 1, according to a news release from the hospital\u2019s public information officer, Chuck Krupa.<\/p>\n

No reopening date was provided.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Yeager, former spokeswoman at Southwest Health System organized the protest via a Facebook announcement. She told a Journal<\/em> reporter that women having birth-related emergencies are in danger if the birthing center closes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot having resources for even one day poses a risk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Yeager also expressed concerns for expecting mothers living in Towaoc or people who may not have access to a car to get to Mercy Hospital in Durango.<\/p>\n

Yeager announced to the group that she would like to have a public forum with the hospital to allow people to voice their concerns directly to the board. Otherwise, the next board meeting is June 28.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jessica Kaplan, a gynecologist at Southwest Memorial Hospital, said that she was \u201cdevastated by this quick decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to do everything we can to help women and maternal health,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A protester told a Journal<\/em> reporter that he doesn\u2019t think the closure is temporary.<\/p>\n

Among the protesters were hospital staff and several children, as well as mothers with their babies or expecting mothers.<\/p>\n

One staff member has four children. Her oldest, Anastasia, spoke to the Journal<\/em> reporter.<\/p>\n

\"Protesters
Protesters hold posters toward the road in front of Southwest Memorial Hospital (Shylee Graf\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A hospital staff member and her daughter hold up signs (Shylee Graf\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m 11 years old and I think it\u2019s wrong to take my mom\u2019s job,\u201d she said. She added that having a baby in the ER can take a long time and be stressful, which is why she thinks the birthing center needs to stay open.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, protesters would like to have a conversation with the hospital and express their concerns.<\/p>\n

Yeager urged people to go to the next board meeting to express their concerns if a public forum is not held.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next board meeting is June 28, and the center closes on July 1. It\u2019s hard not to think that was intentional,\u201d Yeager stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018I think everybody is angry. It certainly is detrimental,\u2019 organizer says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,210],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-southwest-health-system"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82237,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33506\/revisions\/82237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33506"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}