A new maternity clinic offering holistic care is coming to West San Jose. It still means moms in East San Jose will need to travel across town to take advantage of these services.
The Millie Clinic opens next month at 1471 Saratoga Ave. The clinic aims to fill a gap in the traditional health care system that focuses on baby delivery rather than the needs of the mother. It will pair women with a doula, who provides guidance, and a nurse midwife as the primary practitioner, providing preconception counseling, infection screenings and gynecology care throughout and after pregnancy. The clinic will partner with Good Samaritan Hospital, owned by HCA Healthcare, to perform the deliveries.
“People navigate early pregnancy without actually any support or care,” Millie Clinic CEO Anu Sharma told San José Spotlight. “The lack of more continuous care both during pregnancy and in the postpartum period ends up creating significant care gaps and more poor outcomes.”
While more resources for women are needed, services have historically been concentrated on the west side of the city instead of the east side, which has seen a divestment of health care. In 2020, HCA closed Regional Medical Center’s obstetrics, labor and delivery and newborn care services in East San Jose, leaving pregnant women with limited options. Good Samaritan Hospital on the west side and county-owned hospitals such as O’Connor Hospital and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center have been the closest choices.
Advocates said that women in East San Jose may be willing to go to the new clinic for services, but accessibility might be a problem for some.
“I think when people are looking to access the care that they need, they are very resourceful in getting (it), but it is always good to have care in a way that is very accessible where you live,” Darcie Green, executive director of Latina Contra Cancer, told San José Spotlight.
With a shortage of OB-GYNs in California and across the U.S., doctors have shifted their limited time toward surgical procedures, which is more lucrative than walking women through their entire pregnancy, Sharma said. In addition, most women don’t see a doctor until they are well into their first trimester.
But with the county’s purchase of Regional from HCA, Green said it prevents East San Jose from becoming a health care desert. The county will officially own the hospital on April 1 and plans to restore maternity services, though the timeline is yet to be determined.
Sharma said she chose to partner with HCA’s Good Samaritan because she wanted to bring services to the South Bay. She opened the first clinic in Berkeley in 2022. The clinic accepts all insurances, including Medi-Cal.
“We chose Good Sam because it has a long history of serving the west side, but also the south side,” Sharma said. “What was more important was to find a health system that … had capacity at the hospital to be able to deliver additional patients.”
Sharma wants holistic care to be the norm for expectant mothers. She has plans to expand into other cities in Northern California, as well as across the country.
“We see enormous demand for our model,” Sharma said.
Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.
This story originally appeared in San José Spotlight.
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