I wanted to echo why the need for midwifery expansion in the north is so important, because Buffy talked about these teams of midwives and not having the ability to provide 365-day-a-year care. In our communities, that is happening with midwives who don't have the support or the bodies or the extra midwives to support them in that.
For example, I work and live in an urban centre where there are many other midwives, but I am the only indigenous midwife practising out of my practice, so I provide 365-day care, around-the-clock care. If I am physically not able to be present, then I'm at least reachable for our clients so that I can send them in the right direction for the care they need.
If we don't have more midwives, this happens. We have a midwife in Elliot Lake who is very similar. There are many midwives in smaller, more rural parts of our community that don't have multiple midwives to support them in that work. That's again why it's so important that we have more midwives trained in the north.