Midwifery stalled in New Brunswick, despite promise of expanded service
CBC
If you want the services of a midwife in New Brunswick, you don’t have many options.
The first Midwifery Centre opened in Fredericton in 2017 with funding for four licensed midwives offering care to patients within a 60-minute drive.
As president of the Midwives Association of New Brunswick, Usrula Rinne promotes the expansion of the service, but that hasn’t happened and the Fredericton clinic remains the only one in the province.
She can’t say exactly how many people are on the waitlist for a midwife, but says there’s a constant flow of inquiries from across the province. And with now just three midwives working at the clinic in Fredericton, the small team can’t even meet the local demand.
“From waitlist numbers in the past … we’re not meeting the needs of those within the radius,” said Rinne.
Premier Susan Holt promised to expand midwifery services during her 2024 election campaign, but Rinne says that promise has stalled and nothing has been “formalized in terms of a development of a new site.”
New Brunswick officially recognized midwives as a regulated publicly funded health profession in 2010 with the Midwifery Act.
But it wasn’t until 2017, when the Fredericton centre opened, that people could access care.
According to the Canadian Association of Midwives, midwives are primary health-care providers who provide care during pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period.
In 2023, there were 75 midwifery-led births in New Brunswick, which accounted for just 1.2 per cent of the births that year.
Cathleen Legacy started looking for alternative pregnancy and birth options after her second child was born back in 2010.
She soon discovered Facebook groups where women shared their experiences with midwives.
“Women felt like their midwife actually remembered who they were appointment to appointment,” Legacy said.
For the Bathurst mother of five, seeing the personalized care and at home birth options provided by a midwife was “eye opening.”
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