The Warren family prefers a midwifery-assisted birth over the traditional methods most are accustomed to.
A new midwifery program hopes to ease burden but will it be enough?
The demand for midwives in Alberta has skyrocketed with wait-lists at some midwifery clinics in the Calgary area reaching up to 50 families each month. With such a dramatic shortage of midwives across the province and growing demand a new Mount Royal University program is an integral part of the solution.
When Calgarian Esther Warren was pregnant with her second child she and her husband called every midwifery group in Calgary and Cochrane but were put on wait-lists. Months into the pregnancy they were overjoyed to receive a phone call from Birth Partnership Midwives offering them a spot.
The Warren family had an ideal midwife-assisted birth. Less than an hour after checking into the hospital on June 23 Warren gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The birth was completely natural and assisted by her midwifery team and the couple was able to bring their daughter home only a few hours after the birthing process.
“It felt natural and normal” Esther says. “And the care afterwards is so awesome.”
The process was vastly different than the birth of her son in 2009 which involved medical intervention that Esther now believes may have been unnecessary. “I never got the impression that the doctors listened to us” Esther says.
Her husband says the birth of their first child felt needlessly busy and chaotic. “It was a lot more stressful and everyone seemed to be rushed” Mike says.
In the past Alberta families that could afford it paid for out of their own pockets for the care that midwives provide. Then in 2009 the provincial government decided to cover the $3500 cost per family. They seemingly discovered that while midwife service is great for families the province can also benefit especially because of a shortage of doctors available to provide care to pregnant women.
Another selling point for the health care system is that midwives save on average $1200 per birth. According to the Association of Ontario Midwives cost savings come from about 30-per-cent fewer C-sections less than half the number of episiotomies shorter hospital stays and a re-admission rate to hospitals that is 65-per-cent lower than after traditional births. Almost a third of babies in the city are born through C-section according to a 2009 birthing report by the provincial government.
“Alberta is in desperate need of midwives” says Debbie Duran-Snell from her office at Mount Royal University. Duran-Snell a midwife with over 32 years’ experience is part of the MRU program team.
The MRU program is the only one in the province and is aiming to ease wait lists. There are currently less than 40 practising midwives in Alberta. In comparison Ontario has more than 400.
“What was already a high-demand profession became an extremely high-demand profession” says Duran-Snell. “Everyone knew there had to be a program to train midwives it was just a question of where.”
So far only a handful of future midwives will be admitted to the program. Of more than 200 women who applied to the program in its first year only 12 were accepted. The program hopes to admit up to 20 students per year over the next four years subject to funding and capacity so it is very competitive.
Midwifery students are chosen based on academic background and individual motivation: responsibility communication skills ethical and moral reasoning are among the required qualities.
While local midwife Ali Reimer is capable of coaching women through natural childbirth at home birth centres or in the hospital she also appreciates the importance of her role when intervention is required seeing herself as a patient advocate.
“We’re really lucky in Calgary that most of the obstetricians are really happy to work with midwives” she says. “Being in a hospital is overwhelming. It’s hard to figure out logically what’s going on when you’re so emotionally involved and exhausted.”
As Alberta’s population grows the pressure on hospitals is also mounting making it more difficult for some expecting parents to receive the quality of care they hope for.
Melodie Leblanc gave birth to her first baby in June. She describes the experience as a nightmare. She and her husband languished at the hospital while waiting for a bed and Leblanc was only admitted less than an hour before her baby was born. After an emergency forceps delivery Leblanc ended up with extreme damage to her body including a fourth-degree tear and now suffers from high blood pressure a dangerous postnatal condition.
“I am heartbroken that I have to deal with all of this pain” she says. “I was crying at least a few times a day for a week straight after coming home from the hospital because of the excruciating pain. I was looking forward to being able to take my baby for walks to the park to see friends and to enjoy the summer with him. None of this could happen.”
Calgarian Mei-Lyn Freeman has been closely following the development of the midwifery program at MRU as she hopes to become a midwife when she returns from China where she is studying acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine.
An undergraduate degree in microbiology opened the door for Freeman’s career in pharmaceuticals and she spent years working with doctors and in hospitals. After having a natural birth for her first child Freeman ended up in the hospital to have her second of three babies because she required intervention for a safe delivery. Freeman felt she did not receive the quality of care she had hoped for and says the hospital staff “took over.”
“There needs to be more collaboration between midwives and the medical system” she says. “One can really complement the other.”
With her experience working with doctors she hopes to bridge the gap between traditional care and midwifery by being more involved.
“There is this assumption that if you have a midwife you’re a hippy. Although this may sometimes be true this stereotype needs to change. I believe my science background and experience working with doctors in the conventional medical system and midwives in a more ‘traditional sense’ gives me insight how to better integrate the two methods to help create a complementary health care option for pregnant women.”
