Taking the Highway to Have a Baby

An Abandoned Patient

It wasn't morning sickness that made Vanessa Valdez's first trimester of pregnancy so hard--it was homesickness. So when the check-cashing company she worked for in Tucson, Ariz., offered her a transfer to her hometown of Douglas, she jumped at the chance. Four months pregnant at the time, Valdez, 24, was delighted to come home to her boyfriend, her parents and the 2-year-old son she left in their care when her job took her out of town. But now, as she prepares to give birth to a baby girl, she is dealing with a major drawback: there is no obstetrician within an...

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