WATCH Demands
(November-1972)
(Editors Note: WATCH- Women Act To Control Healthcare, was organized
by members of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union. WATCH led a
campaign to try to save the Chicago Maternity Center which offered
safe home birth services to Chicago's impoverished west side. The
Center eventually was forced to close despite public protest. Below
is the text of the demands put out by WATCH.)
For the
past 77 years the Chicago Maternity Center has provided outstanding
maternal, home delivery and childcare services to the people of the
Chicago area according to their ability to pay. In no other city
in America does such a community based clinic serve the needs of
urban women wishing to have their babies at home. In addition, the
CMC provides unique medical training in community medicine and provides
24 hour emergency obstetrical care and transport as no other agency
in the city does.
The CMC
points the direction in which all women’s medicine should be
moving. Therefore, the only progressive action that the Board of
Trustees of the Chicago Maternity Center and Northwestern University
can take is to maintain and expand present services and certain
not the opposite, to phase out the present services of the CMC
or to relocate them our of the Maxwell Street neighborhood into
the new Womens Hospital by Lake Shore Drive.
If the
Board is truly responsible to the Center, all of the necessary
money, influence and energies will immediately be directed toward
fulfilling the following demands:
1. To maintain a 24 hour home delivery service the Board
MUST provide:
4. We emphasize that responsibility for the
Chicago Maternity Center services rests with the Board of the
CMC. Leaving patients in the hands of representatives of other
institutions without a specific contracted agreement is irresponsible
and negligent. If the Chicago Maternity Center services are to
be incorporated along with the name into the new Women’s
Hospital & Maternity
Center, then any money pledged to the building of that new institution
by CMC and members of the CMC Board should be conditional upon
the maintenance of adequate staff and provisions for a 24 hour
home delivery and emergency service for the City of Chicago by
that new institution.
5. To insure planning for comprehensive services,
Board membership with voting privileges should incorporate representatives
of staff and community organization which are served by and interested
in the Chicago Maternity Center. WATCH demands voting representation
in the Board of Directors of the CMC and the Planning Committee
of the new Women’s Hospital and Chicago Maternity Center.
We demand that the Board submit its plan to appropriate health
planning groups such as the Citizen ’s Health Organization.
6. We want public disclosure of any and all information
on plans for building, programs and services of the new Women’s
Hospital & Maternity Center.
