What to Do When Your OB or Midwife Leaves the Practice
You built trust with someone. Maybe over months, maybe over more than one pregnancy. Then you get the message, in a portal note, a phone call, a passing comment at your last visit: they're leaving the practice.
This isn't really about scheduling. It's about starting over, with someone new, at a moment when you least want to.
It's okay to feel the loss, not just the inconvenience
A provider leaving is often talked about like a logistics problem: find a new one, transfer your records, move on. But if you trusted that person, if they knew your history, your fears, your family, this is a real loss, and it's fair to feel it as one, not just an errand to check off.
What's actually urgent, and what isn't
If you have a specific medical concern your previous provider was already monitoring, don't wait to find a new one, reach out to whoever's covering in the interim, or seek care directly for anything urgent. For most healthy pregnancies, a short gap while you find the right next provider is common, and it's okay to take a little time to choose well rather than picking the first name that becomes available.
Use this as a real chance to interview, not just replace
Since you're starting a new relationship anyway, this is worth treating as a genuine choice, not just a placeholder. It's easy to feel pressure to grab whoever has an opening first, but this moment is actually a rare chance to pause and ask what you really want from your care, not just who's available.
What mattered to you before? What didn't? Did you wish you'd had more time at each visit, more say in your birth plan, someone who actually remembered your history without checking a chart first? A disruption like this, as frustrating as it is, is also an opening to choose based on what you actually value, not just what you're used to.
We wrote a full list of questions worth asking any provider, OB, midwife, or otherwise, in “Questions to Ask When You Are Interviewing a Midwife.” Many of those questions apply just as well outside midwifery: who will actually be with you, what happens if plans change, how much time you'll really get at each visit.
Why this keeps happening, and what actually prevents it
Provider turnover isn't only an OB problem. It happens in team-based midwifery models too, anywhere care is structured around a group rather than a single, consistent relationship. If you're low-risk and healthy, your options were never limited to whichever name has an opening this month, and they were never limited to a rotation of providers at all.
This isn't just a Lubbock problem, and midwifery is part of the real answer
This kind of disruption is part of a much larger picture, and Texas is at the center of it. Nearly half of Texas counties are classified as maternity care deserts, and roughly one in five pregnant Texans receive inadequate or no prenatal care at all, both higher than the national average.¹
National research from March of Dimes has found that midwifery and birth center care are associated with better health outcomes, higher client satisfaction, and lower costs.² Their reporting describes midwives as a vital, critical part of expanding access to maternity care, especially as obstetric workforce shortages and hospital closures continue to affect communities nationwide.³
For a low-risk pregnancy, choosing midwifery isn't a fallback option. It's a real, evidence-backed answer to a real, growing gap in maternity care, one that's already here in West Texas, not just somewhere else in the country.
An option built specifically so this doesn't happen again
At Malta, you're cared for by the same provider from your first visit through six weeks postpartum. No rotating team, no risk of starting over partway through. If you're navigating this disruption and want to talk with someone who isn't going anywhere, we'd love to meet you.
A free consultation is a good place to start. To schedule, call or text 806-281-7725, visit our contact page, or email maltamidwifery@gmail.com.
¹ March of Dimes. Where You Live Matters: Maternity Care Access in Texas. PeriStats.
² March of Dimes. Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S., 2026 report.
³ March of Dimes reporting on maternity care deserts and the midwifery workforce, 2026.
