Status of Women committee  Thank you. Yes, I am very concerned about the closure of Laurentian University because of its unique mandate. Laurentian University was the only bilingual midwifery education program in Canada, and the only French language midwifery education program accessible to non-residents

Status of Women committee  I think you see Kim and me smiling because you have touched on what is perhaps the biggest selling feature of midwifery care. We look after birthers and their babies until approximately six weeks postpartum—or at least we're compensated in my jurisdiction to six weeks, and care f

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. I think it's critical that we see a national federal-level midwifery office, with a chief midwifery officer, whose role it would be to liaise with the ministers of health, advanced education—education federally and across the provinces and territories—to facilitate t

Status of Women committee  Actually, Canada along with Australia, I think, are really leading the way in terms of evidence, looking at rural midwifery practice. What we haven't seen are the investments that follow the evidence. We know that midwives are more likely to go to rural areas; they're more likel

Status of Women committee  I did want to add to and build on that to say that the Midwives Association of B.C. has been conducting research on burnout in their population. They found that, over COVID, the proportion of B.C. midwives who reported moderate to high work-related burnout has increased from 45%

Status of Women committee  Kim, do you want to take this one first. I know it's your wheelhouse.

Status of Women committee  I would add that midwives picture birth as a normal life event. We do not pathologize birth. Also, we've learned the art of watchful waiting. There's the cliché of midwives knitting in the corner, but it's for a very good reason. If we're knitting, we're not intervening needles

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Kim. I think there's enormous benefit to the continuity-of-care model that midwives have as well as to our fee structure. The continuity means that we're working in small groups. Care is provided by anywhere from one to four midwives in most cases, although there are

Status of Women committee  I think that while we do have Canadian midwifery competencies that are standardized and we do write a national exam, you do see small variations from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in the scope of practice, and those relate somewhat to regulations. Depending on the body involved in

Status of Women committee  I'd like to build on what Kim had to say. It is important not only to fairly compensate midwives, but also to integrate midwifery into the health care system. Otherwise, we will see situations like we see in some of the provinces and territories that are using the employment mode

Status of Women committee  Thank you so much. This is an area where midwifery is greatly underutilized, as Dr. Bourret alluded to earlier. It is within the scope of a midwife to provide cervical cancer screening, to be providing contraception, including the placement of intrauterine devices and the new

Status of Women committee  We cannot afford to have a decrease in indigenous midwifery. In fact, we need to be focusing all of our investments on growing the workforce of indigenous health care providers to fulfill our...Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous

Status of Women committee  I can speak to a somewhat sad example. In my practice very recently we had an indigenous birth-giver who was pregnant with her fifth child. She had had two previous losses. Her eldest child was severely disabled and in a wheelchair with a feeding tube and required 24-7 care, and

Status of Women committee  Thank you so much for your question. I think that midwives have really stepped up in the time of COVID-19 to sustain their services and to offer new services, including advocacy for people who are birthing to receive respectful care and the support they need. To give you an exa

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. The Canadian Association of Midwives and the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives are the organizations representing midwifery in Canada. Our vision is equitable access to excellent sexual, reproductive and newborn midwifery services for everyone. Our