Birthing center reaches out for help

WESLACO - Holy Family Birth Center has been helping women have babies in a low-stress environment for 25 years, but now the center needs help so it doesn't have to close its doors.

The center was founded in 1983 by Sister Angela Murdaugh, along with Sisters Mary Thompson, Damien Francois and Ann Wojtowicz.

The original grant for the center was given by the Meadows Foundation, under the umbrella of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Brownsville.

The center grew to include six birthing suites, a clinic, a classroom, a chapel, medical storage rooms and housing for the staff, volunteers, students and visitors.

Nancy Sandrock, director of the center, is a certified nurse midwife.

She was asked to come to the center last year to keep it from closing because there had been no certified nurse midwives (registered nurses with extra training) for several months.

The donated buildings are located on land at 5819 N. FM 88 that belongs to the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville.

But, despite its name, Holy Family only receives moral support from the diocese; the Roman Catholic Church cannot afford to fund the project, she said.

Although Holy Family is faith-based, the nuns who founded it are now either dead or retired, Sandrock said.

Today there is a shortage of nuns, so there is a paid staff, in addition to volunteers who help women who come to the center and their families, she said.

Having a baby at Holy Family is a different experience than at a hospital, where expectant mothers may be afraid and uncomfortable in a cold, clinical setting, Sandrock said.

Teaching woman to be assertive and to realize they have choices about the birthing experience is one of the center's goals, she said.

Unlike at most hospitals, they have a choice of having the baby in a warm water bath, which is a very natural experience, or in a bed if they prefer, she said.

The babies are not taken away from the mother at birth and kept in another room for six hours or more, as is done in some hospitals, she said. The baby stays with the mother, she said.

Mothers receive instruction in breast-feeding and care of their newborn and may be attended by a doula, which is a woman who attends to the mother all through the process, she said.

But everything costs money and that is in short supply for the center, Sandrock said.

"We may have to close," she said. "We take people, regardless of how much money they make. ... If you call around town, (other facilities) want $1,000 to walk in the door and who has $1,000 sitting around?"

But, even at Holy Family, low-income families are required to fill out paperwork to apply for Medicaid or CHIP reimbursement because there are many expenses, including staff, supplies, utility bills, equipment and repairs, Sandrock said.

CHIP is the state-run Childrens Health Insurance Program.

Some families may not be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP funding, "but they have to make the effort to apply," Sandrock said.

Some doctors, hospitals or clinics encourage low-income women to go to Holy Family for pre-natal care, she said.

If the family is not eligible for a program, they will be put on a payment plan, based on what they can afford, Sandrock said.

Holy Family Birth Center does much more than just help women give birth, Sandrock said. Education about childbirth, prenatal care and infant care are all part of the program.

Volunteers and students nurses are trained at the center, she said.

If there are problems with the pregnancy, the mother and child can be taken to Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco, she said.

Dr. Elizabeth Krishnan worked hard to get hospital admitting privileges for the her, said Sandrock, who has a master's degree in addition to being a registered nurse with training as a midwife.

In addition to money, the center could use donations of baby clothing, baby supplies, packaged baby food, building materials or even gift cards from Home Depot, she said.

Her husband James Sandrock uses his carpentry skills and interest in recycling to make repairs, often with reclaimed building materials, she said.

James and some of the nurses boarded up the buildings before Hurricane Dolly and he has been making repairs since the storm, she said. He also helps maintain the center's computers.