CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Some pregnant women in the Coastal Bend are finding it difficult to make appointments with OBGYNs because of a shortage.
3NEWS visited the 'Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby! Community Resource Fair' to learn more.
Sherry Peterson with United Way of the Coastal Bend said expectant mothers shouldn't be afraid of asking questions of their physicians. “We have to advocate for ourselves," Peterson said. "And so anytime there’s anything going on with our body that is not right, we need to share that."
Peterson is a mother of four. "One of them has special needs, and I didn't know until after he was born that he had cerebral palsy. It's not something they would have been able to catch during my pregnancy, but it certainly made me much more aware."
But what if you're not able to get your questions answered because it's difficult to get an appointment with an OBGYN right now.
Dr. Melissa Chiasson is an OBGYN Associates physician here in the Coastal Bend. She says, there's more people wanting to expand their families.
"We do have a smaller number of people providing obstetrical care and a greater need for it," Chiasson said. "We are seeing an upsweep in pregnancies after COVID, we did have a little decrease in our numbers during COVID times. And now those numbers are rebounding."
Reductions in numbers have hit nearly every profession since the peak of COVID-19. "We have had some decrease in the number of OBGYNs in town, we've had some that have been retiring, moving or doing other ventures in medicine." Chiasson said.
Chiasson told 3NEWS, it's a matter of having OBGYNs join the workforce here. She explained, “Unfortunately, we have a hard time getting physicians to come down to Corpus to work with us."
In the meantime, as you wait for an appointment to become available, start a prenatal vitamin.
"Start your exercise, healthy eating, if you are on medication, seek out to your doctor that provided those medications, ask them are they safe to continue during pregnancy," Chiasson said.
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