St. Luke's has opened a new OB/GYN clinic in Nampa, addressing a significant gap in maternal health services in the region."If a mom does not get sufficient prenatal care, it really can impact the outcome of her infant. And then it goes into impacting the family and truly impacting the community at large," said Katie Schimmelpfennig, St. Luke's Administrator of Women's and Children.This is the first new OB/GYN service since the closure of Saltzer Health, which left many pregnant residents scrambling for continued care."With the closure of Saltzer, that shut down a very busy practice of a total of nine providers for both obstetrics and gynecology that serve this end of the valley," said Dr. Megan Kasper. "Then West Valley [in Caldwell] closed both their labor and delivery unit and their OB/GYN practice."Given the shortage of OB/GYN providers for women in the area, I asked Schimmelpfennig whether the new clinic was a direct response to Saltzer's closure or if it had been planned beforehand."Great question," she says, "We have for probably about the last two years been in conversation about opening an OB/GYN clinic in Nampa because the need was large, even with Saltzer being here. Really, it was around space. Where do we find the space to be able to put that clinic?"The solution was to use space above the former Saltzer Urgent Care at the St. Luke's Nampa campus. Despite the addition of new providers in the valley, there is still a pressing need for women's healthcare."If we look at what the overall country has, that would suggest that the population of the Southwest Health District in Idaho, covering those six counties, including Canyon County, is the largest one, that we should have about 33 OBGYNs, full-time OBGYNs in this part of the state," Dr. Kasper explained. Currently, there are about twelve OB/GYNs, according to Dr. Kasper.St. Luke's is aiming to fill those gaps despite legislative challenges that make recruiting providers difficult. "We had probably a 12 to 18-month plan to open an OB clinic out here," Katie stated. "But as soon as they announced [Saltzer's closure], it was game on. On the 20th, we'll have one full-time physician, two full-time certified nurse midwives."