The quick background - I am from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Currently in our province, our laws changed and basically outlawed private practice midwifery to allow all Saskatchewan residents to enjoy the benefits of having a midwife covered under the Saskatchewan Health Act like other health services are. At the time of the change in 2008, we had a few midwives in the community who were doing their own thing but who weren't a "registered midwife". When the law changed, due to the requirements of certain education, experience, and having liability insurance our local midwives were unable to practice.
With regulated midwifery now in our province, we're finding ourselves scrambling to find anyone to come here. The Saskatchewan College of Midwives along with Canadian standards requires a certain amount of training/experience/etc, and the process is confusing but it is attainable. In our province there are two large cities (Regina and Saskatoon). In Saskatoon, there are currently 6 midwives working, and there is still a vast wait list of women but some women are able to have home or hospital birth with a midwife. In my community, we recently hired one midwife but are desperately seeking more.
I am emailing you with the intention of recruiting midwives for our community. I'm not employed or being paid by anyone to do so, but I am asking as a mother, supporter of midwifery, and as an expecting mother to reach out to your contacts to see if anyone is interested in looking at working here. I am wondering if any of your fellow students are looking for a change, a challenge, and the chance to make a difference in a community that will be very, very happy to see someone new in the position.
Our city is a very diverse one. Yes, it is cold in the winter and hot and dry in the summer. We have lots of activities, culture, great schools, and a great standard of living here. You can purchase a pretty nice house in a great neighborhood for around $250,000. We have one of the most beautiful urban parks in the world. The shopping is great, there is public transit, and it's in the bread basket of the world. Our First Nations community is rapidly growing, and it would be a wonderful chance for a midwife looking to get experience with a large variety of families and situations. There is a brand new mother/baby/nicu until that is nearing completion, with state of the art equipment.
Any midwife here would be an immediate hero. Seriously. The opportunities are endless to grow and establish a practice here. The world would be your oyster, so to speak.
Here is a link for the job posting.
http://www.rqhealth.ca/diy_PASS IT ALONG! Even if you cannot help personally.
~AYC
6 comments:
It would seem that the writer does not understand the difference between a CNM and a direct entry midwife, and thinks they can each provide the same kind of service. Canada is to be congratulated on regulating the practice of midwifery so that women will be properly taken care of, unlike the US, which in some states doesn't allow midwives [of any type] and in others allows anyone at all to use the title, which is highly dangerous.
I haven't any doubt that both the US and Canada need properly educated, regulated nurse-midwives to improve maternity services. But it seems to me that the correct response would be to push for Canada's national government to create more training programs leading to a CNM degree or licensure.
Antigonos, if the model in Saskatewan is like Manitoba's (its neighbouring province), "Direct Entry" midwives are still allowed to practice IF they meet the requirements set out by the College of Midwives (the governing body) in that Province.
The problem lies in the fact that there are not many training programmes for Midwives, especially in the prairies. Many women have to travel out of country to obtain training.
The second problem is that Midwifery is still relatively unknown in mainstream culture here. Many people do not realize that is a valid medical profession. I try to encourage every young woman I meet to look into Midwifery as a career if they are interested in the medical field.
AtYourCervix, best wishes with your plea. Every woman deserves a Midwife.
Thank you for posting this, AtYourCervix.
Sadly, it resembles the state of many Canadian towns and cities, especially those in the prairie provinces (Alberta, Sask, Manitoba).
The problem really is in the lack of training offered for midwifery. I pray that I will live to see the day that a Bachelor of Midwifery degree is offered at most Canadian Universities, much like a direct entry nursing degree is offered now. Currently there are only 3 training programs in the whole country.
I am from BC Canada and in 10 days I will be traveling to New Zealand, where I will spend the next 3 years (and an inordinate amount of money) in a direct entry, Bachelor of Midwifery program offered by Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin. I will then be returning to Canada and attempting to gain my license here. There are so many underserved areas and so much work to be done.
The road ahead is long but worth it. Every woman deserves a midwife.
I lived in Regina Saskatchewan for 3 months while going to college back in the 1970s. It isn't really a place you would want to live long term, and therein lies the problem.
It certainly is pretty countryside...the hidden valleys, the cool crisp clear winters (40 below when I was there - all the plug ins for the cars failed and everyone's blocks froze at the school!)...but when you consider that by the end of September it is winter....and the spring comes late and is mud....and the summers are a couple months of horrible bugs.....well.....I can think of better places to live.
I would miss the mountains, and I love it in B.C. where the flowers grow and bloom well into December and spring comes at the end of February..... I can't take that cold anymore. My father is from Saskatchewan and there is no way he ever would want to go back.
It is always good to regulate Midwifery - safer for women....in BC - I was happy that it was done - it is easy to get a midwife here...but then, there aren't the challenges weather-wise here as there is in the prairies.
Our City of Regina is a BEAUTIFUL place to live sure we get cold weather, but our people are wonderfully warm!! If you didn't love Regina you didn't spend enough time here!
I was not born or raised in Regina, but it has become home in a few short years. We have a wonderful arts and culture scene withan amazing folk festival, independent theatres, music and farmers markets. It is a great place to grow a garden and an affordable place to make a home.
Our summers are wonderfully warm and our cold winters are beautifully sunny. A walk around the lake in the cold air and sunshine sweetens a day like few other things!
Our birth community, though lacking midwives is ready with open arms to connect new midwives to our community personally. We are doulas, childbirth educators, allied practitioners like chiropractors, naturopaths, massage therapists, acupuncturists, to name just a few. We are excited to welcome more midwives to Regina and Saskatchewan!
All of us involved in working to bring midwifery services to Regina are well aware of the benefits and liabilities of the new regulated system, and for better or worse our goal is to support our local midwives to licensing, to bring in more midwives, and hopefully to someday see training happening in the province.
I live in Ontario. While pregnant with my kids, I lived about 50 minutes north of Toronto, in beautiful landscapes of the Oak Ridges Morraine and Niagra Escarpment. Far enough away from the city to not be part of it, but close enough that we could use it when needed. The town was also about 45 minutes away from every other large city.
And there were no midwives. For a long time, there were only two OBs in town and they were both against adding midwives to the hospital roster. By the time my third child came along, I could find a midwife if I wanted to drive about 30 minutes and birth in the hospital there.
So, it's not just the prairies, it's not just the training programs or the government funding. There's still old-school OBs that run hospitals and don't want to share :(
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