It's a sad state of affairs for midwives and the expectant moms hoping to use their services. In Orangeville, Ont. midwives are staging a march to bring awareness to their battle to integrate their practice at Headwaters Health Care Centre.
“The midwives still don’t have privileges for their entire practice at the hospital,” said co-director of Where’s My Midwife?, Maria Radonicich.
Although the hospital has approved two midwives, with a third in the works, it's much too little, too late. Expecting moms like Amanda Stephen wind up driving as far as 45 minutes to another hospital to get midwifery-led care. Moms-to-be are increasingly opting for midwifery care for the extra attention midwives provide before and after birth.
Where’s my Midwife?, an international organization, hopes to raise awareness of the “lack of support” for midwifery services at Headwaters Health Care Centre and other hospitals like it.
Even at hospitals like Toronto's Mount Sinai, the cap on the number of births per midwife hasn't budged in years. Others restrict the number of midwives who can work from their facility.
It's a catch-22 for Ontario midwives who are more in demand than ever yet unable to meet that growing demand due to hospital restrictions.
“We hope the hospital will see that the community is upset, and wants access to midwives,” Radonicich explained. “Women shouldn’t have to get in a car and drive in snow and God knows what in the wintertime when they have a hospital right down the street.”
The march will take part on 10 a.m. on Saturday, 12 November, beginning at the Midwives of Headwater Hills Broadway office and ending to the town's hospital. The march will be filmed by The One World Birth Project as part of an upcoming documentary slated for release in summer 2012.
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