A New Brunswick mother who is hoping to have her baby delivered by a midwife in Fredericton is worried that she is running out of time.
It has been five months since the province announced a midwifery care pilot project would be launched in Fredericton, N.B. and Madeleine Nickerson said there is still no clinical services available in the city.
“Honestly when I got pregnant I honestly thought for sure that I would have a midwife by this point,” said Nickerson, who is 33 weeks pregnant.
READ MORE: Midwifery pilot project to start in Fredericton
In December the provincial government announced the first regulated midwifery pilot practice would be in place in Fredericton in four to six months.
Now, with only a month before the government’s deadline, Nickerson is concerned that the program won’t be set up in time for the birth of her second child.
“I definitely think it is taking too long,” she said.
Rachelle Lanteigne with New Brunswick Families for Midwives, says a new lead midwife has been hired by the province and is starting her new role in Fredericton next week.
“Right now if a family in Fredericton is expecting a child and wants to have midwifery care they can’t right now because nothing has been set up yet,” said Lanteigne.
Midwives normally work in teams of at least two people.
The province says its in the process of carrying out its annoucned plan.
“Our Lead Midwife will start on May 8. We are currently in the process of hiring a second midwife, with the plan to hire four in total. We are working to identify a location in Fredericton to provide midwifery services,” wrote Stephanie A. Neilson-Levesque, spokesperson for Horizon Health Network, in an email to Global News.
But the province did not give a time line on when expectant mothers will be able to actually access a midwife.
Nickerson hopes it will be soon, because she says that her baby may not be able to wait much longer.
“We’ve got almost two months to go so hopefully they can get themselves together by then”
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