SAN ANTONIO — Desiree Serros is a Southside San Antonio girl at heart, and as she awaits the birth of her third son, she explains how there weren’t too many OBGYN options for folks in the area she grew up in. 

“So I actually had physician that was on the Southside, so I was able to go there. It was very convenient but it was very limited,” Serros says. 

For Southeast-siders who opt to go somewhere else, they have to travel at least 10 miles to receive OB services downtown, and if they want to travel to the medical center on San Antonio’s Northside, it's nearly 14 miles. That can be a challenge for expectant mothers who rely on public transportation. 

 Michael Cline, CEO of Mission Trail Baptist Hospital on San Antonio’s Southeast side, explains how vital this is. 

“South San Antonio is in great need of OB services. We did our initial research of OB at Mission Trail - 600-plus expecting drive by Mission Trail every month,” Cline says. 

So now Mission Trail plans to launch its own maternity unit in August, which Cline believes will relieve expectant mothers and their families. 

Desiree Serros walks around the maternity unit at Northcentral Baptist Hospital in San Antonio. (Spectrum News 1/Jose Arredondo)
Desiree Serros walks around the maternity unit at Northcentral Baptist Hospital in San Antonio. (Spectrum News 1/Jose Arredondo)

Serros, who works in the Baptist system, took a stroll to one of Mission Trail’s sister hospitals to see what kinds of resources this new maternity unit will have. 

“It really is exciting because they give other options. The Southside is huge, the whole community around it as well,” Serros says. 

That includes communities in the small towns that neighbor the Southside. 

Desiree is due in June so she won’t have an opportunity to give birth at Mission Trail, but she’s excited for other Southsiders to have this special moment in their community.