There are only three provinces in Canada currently without registered midwifery care, a number that’s soon to drop.
The New Brunswick’s government announced in the 2016 budget that they’ll be hiring four professional midwives, welcome news to many.
“We’re hoping that it will continue to grow with the years so that women and families across New Brunswick have the option of getting midwifery care for their pregnancy, labour and birth.” Said Melissa Langlais president of the Midwifery Association of New Brunswick.
In her eight years of practicing as a midwife, Langlais has had to work outside her home province in Manitoba and currently in Nova Scotia. The association’s head office is actually at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
She says she’s thrilled that opportunities are opening up in New Brunswick, and that she isn’t alone.
“Midwives from New Brunswick, we’re all very excited that the practice is going to be starting,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to going home to practice.”
Care for all stages of pregnancy
Midwifery care extends across all stages of pregnancy, consulting through the initial months, preparing for birth and even assisting post-partum.
For mothers like Sarah Rodgers, the announcement is better late than never.
“We moved when I was eight and a half months pregnant,” she said.
“I had been followed by a midwife all of my pregnancy in Ontario and then moving here all of a sudden that’s a service that wasn’t available.”
She says many expectant mothers enjoy the support a midwife gives as well as the options they provide such as home births if desired.
“It was very bizarre to me to have to be in the hospital when I wasn’t sick, I was just pregnant.”
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