Legal midwifery in Saskatchewan

[babycatcher33]

While I was on my way to attend a homebirth in Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Government was making this announcement.

Basically, it finalizes the Midwifery Act, so midwives will now be able to provide legal, funded midwifery care in homes and hospitals.  Until now, midwives could only deliver babies at home, clients paid for services on their own dime

Comments

[babycatcher33]

CPM is not a recognized title in Canada. Midwives are either un-registered "birth attendants" or they are legal Registered Midwives. And yes, now that The Midwifery Act has been proclaimed, everything is al llegal and Registered Midwives can attend home and hospital births, have full hospital privileges, and midwifery services will be funded by the government. When services are funded, the expectant parents don't have to pay for services out of their own pocket, it's just covered under our provincial health care plan like it would for care under a physician. Here in SK, the Registered Midwives will be employed with a specific Health Region (we have 7 (?) in the province), they'll have paid holidays, health benefits, office space and supplies are paid for etc. Kind of a sweet deal, but we are limited to how far we can travel to attend births, and we are employees, so we always have someone to answer to. Indpendant midwifery is an option here as well, so a midwife could legally open her own private practice and still have hospital privileges but the government is not going to fund the services for independant midwives, so their clients would have to pay out of their own pocket. So really, who is going to pay the $2500-3000 for midwifery services when they can get them for free from a Health Region employed midwife?

Sorry to ramble, it's just complicated and frustrating and makes me clench my teeth every time I think about it all.