Birth centre slated for St. Vital

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WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Health Minister Theresa Oswald announces move to fulfil a 2007 campaign promise Thursday.

The province unveiled plans Thursday to open a $3.5-million birth centre in St. Vital that will be able to handle up to 500 births a year. Eight midwives will work out of the facility, which is expected to have an operating budget of at least $2 million.

Health Minister Theresa Oswald, flanked by eight other female NDP caucus members, described the new centre -- the first of its kind in Manitoba -- as a victory for women.

"It's a proud, proud day to be a woman in Manitoba and it's a great day for families," Oswald told a news conference in the former Global TV building on St. Mary's Road, where the centre will be located. It's expected to be ready by the middle of next year.

The announcement bucks a trend towards centralization of birthing services in the city. Currently, the only medical facilities where women can give birth are St. Boniface General Hospital and the Women's Hospital, which is part of the Health Sciences Centre complex.

Creating a birth centre, attended by midwives, was a plank in the NDP's 2007 election campaign platform. It's an idea that's also been put forward by the provincial Conservatives.

Oswald said the centre is intended to be a hub for prenatal services in Winnipeg -- whether families choose to have their babies there, at home or in a hospital.

"It's a different kind of care. It's a different kind of relationship that exists between a woman and her midwife. And we're really pleased to support an environment in which that can be pursued," she said.

The facility will be managed by the Women's Health Clinic in conjunction with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

Joan Dawkins, the clinic's executive director, said advocates had been lobbying for such a facility for three decades.

Dawkins said the Women's Health Clinic will continue to offer its current services out of its downtown home on Graham Avenue.

At the news conference, Oswald singled out the efforts of Madeline Boscoe, a registered nurse and advocacy and special-projects co-ordinator at the clinic, in getting the project off the ground. "But not for her dedication, I believe that this dream wouldn't be coming true today," the health minister said.

Conservative health critic Myrna Driedger said her party is "very supportive" of the creation of a new birthing centre, but blasted the NDP for its failure to train and fund enough midwives in Manitoba.

The province currently funds more than 40 midwives, but the College of Midwives says Manitoba needs about 200, Driedger said. "They're turning away over half of the people that want a midwifery birth."

Meanwhile, Boscoe said the current trend towards building birth centres is about creating an environment where women can relax with their families and have very specific care to support normal pregnancies. Hospitals are adept at dealing with high-risk cases, but most of the time "it's our bodies doing the work," she said.

"As we look at outcomes for home birth and birth centres in other places we know this is absolutely the way to go," Boscoe said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Move to offer greater choice

Why a free-standing birth centre?

Proponents say this non-hospital alternative provides a more relaxed atmosphere for straightforward midwife-attended births. Moms are said to be more satisfied with the birthing experience, there are lower rates of intervention and higher rates of breastfeeding.

Do other provinces and countries have them?

Such facilities are common in Great Britain and Quebec and more provinces are looking at establishing them, the province says.

What services and programs will it offer?

The centre will include four birthing rooms and offer prenatal education and counselling, a newborn infant drop-in, breastfeeding support and parenting groups. It will also be a place for midwives and colleagues in other disciplines to share knowledge and guide and mentor students and new health-care providers.

Why is the province opening a birth centre when it closed maternity wards in community hospitals such as Grace and Victoria general hospitals?

The rationalization of hospital births to the two large teaching hospitals evolved as smaller institutions had difficulty retaining key staff and saw their birth numbers drop as more and more doctors referred patients to St. Boniface General Hospital or the Health Sciences Centre. Grace closed its maternity ward in the late 1990s. The unit at Victoria Hospital closed in 2005, after a judge at an inquest into the death of a newborn at the hospital suggested a number of costly improvements to the ward to respond to safety concerns. While giving women with straightforward pregnancies a new alternative, the new birth centre will add capacity to the system, its proponents say.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 22, 2010 B1