ORLANDO, Fla. — A mobile maternal health clinic is opening it's doors to uninsured and under-insured patients in the Orlando area.

Brooke Schmoe, a midwife from Osceola County who provides maternal healthcare out of a bus, said maternal healthcare requires maintaining long-standing relationships with patients. 

“It’s just relationship-building. It’s not a clinic where you just come in and see somebody for five minutes,” said Schmoe.

Midwives are trained and accredited medical professionals, and the scope of Schmoe’s care is broad. 

“This is where all the medical stuff [is], so blood draws, ultrasounds, prenatal visits, belly-measuring, weighing babies, newborn exams, all of that happens back here,” said Schmoe. 

The clinic’s expansion came on the same day the Orange County Department of Health closed its Women, Infants, and Children office on Orlando’s west side indefinitely, and just weeks after the HCA hospital in Osceola shuttered its nursery. Maxime Karman, who gave birth five weeks ago, has felt the lack of maternal health care options firsthand. 

“It took weeks of searching. First of all, getting insurance was impossible, and then I got insurance, and nobody accepted that insurance,” said Karman. “Luckily I found her. And ever since then, it’s been a dream.”

Karman came to the mobile clinic for prenatal appointments and continues to visit Schmoe for postpartum care. The clinic’s location in Osceola is only a 15 minute drive for her, closer than many providers in the area. 

“It was definitely a journey alone, just finding an OB or a midwife to help out,” said Karman.

The Midwife Bus will be parked at the Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center in Orlando every Monday.