Did you want a homebirth? Were you unable to find a midwife to support you? Do you have no interest in the slightest in midwifery care or homebirth but ever wished your OB could spend more time with you during appointments? Did you know that both of these things are connected? This article was written by a woman in Australia, but many women right here in Alberta face the same restrictions on choice in maternity care due to the current maternity care crisis. Please consider writing/emailing your MLA (the link to a handy form letter from MCAN is included in the first comment) to bring this critical matter to the attention of our government. The letter also includes a link to find out who your MLA is. (If you email your MLA please cc info@maternitycarealberta so they can track whos been contacted) From MCANs report on their listening campaign: Pregnant women in Alberta find it extremely difficult to find primary caregivers of their choice especially in remote, rural, and aboriginal communities. A critical shortage of obstetricians has loomed for years, fewer family doctors are providing maternity care, and the demand for midwives far exceeds the number of registered midwives. Additionally, while it is recognized that obstetricians are extremely skilled and essential for high-risk pregnancies, with fewer family doctors practicing maternity care and not enough midwives to meet the demands, obstetricians are taking on more low risk clients. Not only does this place an unnecessary financial burden on taxpayers, it is a contributing factor to the key concerns set out above. Family doctors and obstetricians operate under Alberta Health’s fee-for-service model without any limitation on the number of clients and procedures they can bill while the funding model for midwifery is based on courses of care (from pre-conception to six weeks postpartum) and allocates a set number of courses of care province-wide. If a pregnant woman in an urban setting is not able to obtain midwifery services due to the shortage of midwives, the woman is limited to birthing in a hospital or birthing at home, either unattended or by hiring a traditional birth attendant. MCAN: maternitycarealberta/ ~ Rachel
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 17:20:28 +0000
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