Hey all- Chris here, again:

Wow, the last few days have been filled with a lot of emotions,  some I’m not really sure how to even explain. It has, also, been amazing to see all the stories, memories and experiences, most of which have been shared on these social media pages, about my mom. It has really helped my family, especially my dad, brother and myself. We, obviously, knew how amazing she was and how much she inspired us daily and it’s truly awesome to see how she did the same for so many lives. My mom and I had wanted to create a post a while back explaining what happened in 2021 and why, in essence, Beach Cities Midwifery ceased to operate. Additionally, I know my mom and my family would want the community to know and understand, ultimately, what happened and how April 11th became a day we will never forget. This, also, is going to help me and I hope, at the very least, it will help others process this tragedy.

Part 1: Where did Beach Cities go?

One of the reasons that this part of the story took so long  to write was the fact that not one reason, not one person stopped or could have stopped what my mom had created at Beach Cities Midwifery,  but it was multiple factors, both personal and in business, that brought about the end of BCMW as we knew it just 12 months ago. Like many businesses, the last few years were a challenge: COVID, massive inflation and price changes, along with dwindling reimbursements, really put a strain on Beach Cities. While having roots in this community for over 20 years, employing hundreds of staff and impacting thousands of lives, directly, and tens of thousands, indirectly, Beach Cities Midwifery needed to solve the biggest problem: how can we exist past BJ’s retirement, who will take over and can we do this without her? Ultimately, 2021 was to be the year of my mom’s retirement; the year she was going to hang her lab coat up, focus on grand babies and pass the torch to a new generation of midwives. She was ready to retire, especially from clinical and call.

About this time last year, my parents decided it was time to leave California and move out of state. That being said, my mom was still committed to finishing 2021 and keeping BCMW going, as there was still lots to do and so many families needing midwifery care in southern California. After the move, she continued to travel back to California and spend a few weeks here on call, seeing patients and working to transition the practice to potentially new owners and/or existing staff, in hopes of keeping the BCMW legacy going. Around June of 2021, I returned from a trip and had lunch with my mom at one of her favorite lunch time places, Black Bird Café, in Long Beach, an amazing place if you’ve never been. Our topic of conversation was the closing of Beach Cities Midwifery by the end of 2021 and how she was going to attempt to sell it to someone, maybe even a medical group. I remember being so excited as, finally, she could retire and travel the way that she wanted to. We toasted and I was overjoyed at the moment. After a few minutes, the dread set in about what this really meant and remembered discussing all the patients, staff and families that would be impacted by this. So, we set a game plan and set off to achieve the goal of keeping at least the memories of BCMW alive and passing along the torch.

At first, we attempted to find a buyer for all the birth centers and/or find someone who could take over and, at least, run the daily operations, allowing my mom to retire from the day-to-day duties. Potentially, maybe do a birth here and there, but largely to help operate BCMW from a distance and, at this moment,  allow her to get ready for Baby Ellie (her granddaughter) to come into the world in November. After a few months, it was starting to become obvious that no one person could fill the role my mom had at BCMW, not even a medical group and that finding one buyer was likely not going to happen. Early in the fall, after a surgery to repair her hip (since she finally had time), things started to evolve in what we now recognize differently today than we did at the time. There was a sudden rush to my mom’s desire to get Beach Cities to a place where she was able to move on, a place where she felt “things were taken care of”. I remember that it just killed me on the inside as she worked so hard for this, so hard for these patients and so hard for our staff. But, like a consummate leader, she worked methodically to ensure everything was taken care of. All the while things started to change with her and, subtly, she stayed strong by keeping a lot of us in the dark at this point. Like us, she didn’t know anything was wrong in particular, but I sensed that she could feel that something was wrong.

Around late September, we had found someone to take the lead with BCMW, but only in Long Beach. My mom worked daily to secure a future for that birth center and the patients that we had already enrolled and would, one day in the future, also become patients. We were so blessed that a former staff member who my mom adored was going to take over, ultimately keeping a lot of the staff on board and employed and help keep the birth community legacy in Long Beach, which she established, going after almost a decade. At around this point, we learned the last day for BCMW would be November 19th 2021, not December 31, 2021 like we had all thought. I know most of the staff (myself included) were just devastated. I remember being unable to sleep knowing ,not only could I do nothing to keep things going (not a midwife), but trying to afford a midwife at the time was nearly impossible. At that point, we scheduled a staff meeting to tell everyone the news about closing and who was taking over and when the last days would be for each office. I was just in shock. That meeting was the first time I heard my mom’s voice in a few days and I remember wondering who is this person talking to me, whose voice is this and I thought, at the time, it was just a delay in the zoom meeting,  given their internet was always so bad at home. I texted my brother and dad and asked what that was all about and they said it had begun a few weeks ago, slowly, and they weren’t sure but she was going to get it checked out.

October was a rough month. My mom and I talked daily as we started to plan the transition to the new owners in Long Beach and worked to transition patients to new providers  in Laguna and Corona. While her voice was changing, she was stronger than ever and more determined to get things accomplished. Like a mother on a mission, she was working relentlessly,  making sure everyone in the company, every student she worked with and, quietly, her family were taken care of, had a place to go and wouldn’t be left without a home. The whole time, no one, not even my mom knew what was truly happening with her body. November 3rd was the last time that I walked into any of the offices still under the ownership of Beach Cities Midwifery as an employee. I left the following day for a long-planned trip to Europe and I knew I would never be working in those offices. On the 19th ,without much ceremony, we had our last day in all the offices and turned over the Long Beach office to the new owners. I was devastated and I know my mom was too but ,at the same time, she was relieved. She was relieved because, for the most part, she had ended things on her terms but ,also, in a way that took care of everyone in some way or another. Prior to Tracy and I getting back from Europe,  she held a “garage sale” and even took care of loading the storage unit with help from my dad, of course, as she knew her time was getting short and that one day she wouldn’t be here. She didn’t want to burden anyone, never did. We both agreed that we would keep Corona around for a month or two and see what we could do, given we still had faith we could find a buyer and find a buyer we did. At the 11th hour, my mom was able to negotiate a deal with a buyer for the Corona office, she got a fair price ,all things considered, and was able to negotiate the future of the birth center and her legacy in the area. On December 1st, she had sold both the Long Beach and Corona Birth Center. We were transitioning to the new owners and a good amount of the staff were still employed, including myself, which she seemed so proud of. She even fist-bumped me at dinner upon hearing the news. On December 16th, 2021, my mom helped re-open the Corona Birth Center under a new owner, with a few existing staff members, zero patients and all the heart and love that she brought to every project.

While there is still a lot more left of this story, this is the end of part one:  what happened to the birth centers. Laguna Hills birth center was closed, as the building space it occupied was sold. Maybe one day things will arise again in the area and my mom’s legacy will continue right where it started. I have a feeling she would have wanted it that way. Please know that Long Beach and Corona are thriving and will continue to thrive for a long time. They both have new names now: the Long Beach Birth Center and Circle City midwifery, and are owned by wonderful people. They both still have some of the same staff my mom adored and, even new ones, including midwives and students who my mom helped shape decades ago. Stay tuned for part 2 which will help better explain to those wondering what actually happened health wise to my mom, the most amazing human I have ever had the chance to experience.