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

[strawberrymama]

ooh I'm so excited for you that you got to attend a birth! What a beautiful experience it was for you, I'm sure :)

[babycatcher33]

IT was really great to attend a birth after such a long 'dry spell'. I hope I get to attend some more soon!

[maggievt1]

Yay!! That's awesome! Does that mean that CPM's can attend hospital births in SK? *sigh* If only that could be a reality in the states as well....

[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