Yes, but we have a bit of a dilemma right now.
Alix spoke a bit about the burnout that midwives are experiencing. COVID has certainly contributed to that, but lack of pay equity and resources have also had a significant impact on the workload that midwives have been experiencing.
You need preceptors to train midwives. I mentioned that there are 2,500 hours of clinical time spent in the midwifery program, where students are placed with midwife providers to learn how to practise, just like medicine and nursing does.
When we burn out midwives, they're not able to find the energy and the time to teach. We've experienced a significant drop in our preceptors in B.C., and I know that has been felt in Ontario, in Alberta, and it's been reported in Quebec. We have significant issues with preceptor burnout.
We need more midwives. However, the University of British Columbia was offered an expansion to our program, and we had to say we could not at this time bring more students in because we couldn't place them.