Midwives want more positions delivered

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/05/2021 (1627 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE province could be doing more to help women avoid hospitals before, during and after the birth of their baby, the Midwives Association of Manitoba says.

While demand for midwives has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, no new positions have been created and close to half of women’s requests for midwifery services are turned down, says the president of the organization.

“Every person that’s cared for in their home, in their region, is someone who doesn’t needlessly have to travel to Winnipeg and take up a hospital bed in the third wave of the pandemic,” Sarah Davis said Monday.

She said a new midwifery program at the University of Manitoba is set to begin in September, while there are seven trained and credentialled midwives in the province waiting for work with no jobs to go to.

Midwives aren’t paid on a fee-for-service basis but are funded by health regions, said Davis.

A spokeswoman for the province referred all inquiries to the individual health regions. Right now, Davis said, there aren’t enough funded positions in several regions, including Interlake-Eastern, Northern Health and Southern Health.

“I am looking for a job but with very little luck, unfortunately,” said midwifery graduate Monica Audette.

It’s not because of a lack of demand, said the midwife who just completed a four-year degree program, including a work placement in Steinbach. The number of families requesting midwifery and having home births in the area has “skyrocketed,” she said.

The pandemic is an oft-cited reason for families requesting midwives and hoping to have home births.

“They wanted to avoid the hospital at all costs,” said the woman who is married with children and lives between Winnipeg and Steinbach. She estimates seeing between 20 and 30 clients per month turned away because there were not enough midwives.

Audette said she wants to be able to put her skills to use in a job she loves.

“I want to be working with families and women and providing prenatal and post-partum care,” said Audette, whose two children (ages six and four) were delivered by Steinbach midwives.

In Steinbach alone, midwives provided care to 212 women and their families in the past year with 118 homebirths, Davis said.

There were a total of 1,163 births from people in the southeast catchment area, with 455 births at Bethesda Hospital in Steinbach, and an unconfirmed 125 births at the hospital in St. Anne’s.

“This is in a region where hundreds of women travel to Winnipeg to birth for no other reason than not having a care provider in the region,” said Davis.

She said there have been more homebirths this past year with six midwives in the Southern Health region than all the homebirths with midwives reported throughout the province in the previous year.

Davis said she hopes those like Audette with their in-demand skills don’t end up leaving the province to practice midwifery. She said close to 40 per cent of Manitoba women requesting midwifery are turned away because of a lack of midwives.

“Midwives have been working really hard this whole pandemic trying to keep families healthy,” said Davis. “We need more help. We need more midwives. We have excellent graduates ready to work and no jobs.”

In Canada, birth is listed as the top reason for a hospital stay, with caesarean section delivery listed as the most common inpatient surgery, the Canadian Institute for Health Information says.

“If you create more midwives, we’ll have more hospital capacity,” said Davis, whose association is planning a postcard blitz Wednesday to draw attention to the need.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca