How is midwifery unique in Manitoba?
What are some challenges for midwifery in Manitoba?
What misunderstandings about midwifery would you like to see corrected?
- The mistaken idea that midwives are not professionally educated or trained.
- There’s some confusion between midwifery and doula care. While doulas provide important supports for pregnant people and birthing families, they aren’t medical professionals like midwives.
- The belief that midwives only attend out-of-hospital births (at home or the Birth Centre).
Here’s a great article challenging 6 common myths about midwifery in Canada:
http://babyrx.weebly.com/home/why-health-professionals-should-support-midwifery-care-in-canada
Who offers midwifery education in Manitoba?
For more information: https://www.ucn.ca/sites/academics/facultyhealth/programofferings/midwifery/Pages/Midwifery.aspx
There are 7 other midwifery education programs in Canada:http://www.canadianmidwives.org/midwifery-education.html
Arctic College in Nunavut also offers a program:http://www.arcticcollege.ca/en/health-programs/item/4922-maternity-care
What about midwives trained in another country?
How many midwives does Manitoba need to meet the demand for service?
What do you enjoy about being a midwife?
Danielle: I’ve always been fascinated by birth since I was a little girl. I saw a midwife in the movie Willow and I wanted to be that, so with every career planning exercise or aptitude test, midwife was always my choice.
Tracey: Embryology was the start of my fascination. I was completely awestruck by the process of three separate streams of cells could form one embryo. Beyond that was my own feminist philosophy – and midwifery fit into that perfectly – embracing and supporting women’s choice, creating a continuity of care. I thought that all types of health care should be doing this and why aren’t they?
Danielle: Midwifery has a philosophy around more natural or holistic health care. It makes me think, what are some of the basic things we need to change to flourish as a society in a sustainable way? Supporting healthy birth, because of all the ways your birth experience can impact things throughout your entire life.
What is your vision for the future of midwifery in Manitoba?
As long as people are giving birth and ready to reclaim those experiences, midwifery will be around – I don’t think it’s going away. Midwifery grew from a grassroots movement. We’ve gone away from that a bit and now we’re going back to it. We need voices. We need to hear from the families, we need other people to support it. The first clients to have midwifery care in Manitoba aren’t having babies anymore; we need new people to share their points of view and their passion and enthusiasm for midwifery care. We also need dedicated volunteers to support the movement for midwifery care for all families.
How can people help support and grow midwifery in Manitoba?
The Manitoba Association of Midwives is starting a social media campaign and planning an event on May 5th, the International Day of the Midwife. Please stay tuned!