Midwifery launch planned for end of 2022

Current plan is to hire three midwives, have 24/7 coverage across P.E.I.

The launch of P.E.I.’s midwifery program is tentatively slated for the end of 2022.

Kelley Rayner, Health P.E.I.’s director of primary care and chronic disease, told members of the health authority’s board last week that work is progressing on the launch of the program, but acknowledged that staff have had to “reset some expectations” around the launch date.

One of those expectations was set by former Health Minister James Aylward, who stated in February the program would be up and running by fall 2021.

“We’re not having midwifery this fall. It takes three years to properly develop a midwifery program,” Rayner told board members June 3.

In 2019, Aylward had also pledged to launch the midwifery program by January 2020. Current Health Minister Ernie Hudson has not set a date for midwifery implementation.

During the meeting, Rayner stressed that time is needed to consult with health professionals, including obstetricians, and members of the public.

“We’ve learned from other provinces, if you don’t do all the steps and do them well, the programs fail,” Rayner said.

“In Nova Scotia, they actually had to stop the program and step back and do a bunch more work around engagement and clarity and looking at how it was structured and then re-launch their program.”

Two public engagement sessions are planned for P.E.I.: One on Tuesday, June 15 at 7 p.m. and one Thursday, June 17 at 12 noon. Both sessions will be held online. Search

Facebook for BORN — PEI’s Midwife Advocacy Group for details on taking part.

P.E.I. and the Yukon territory are the only two jurisdictions in Canada that do not currently offer midwifery supports.

Midwives provide care during low-risk, normal pregnancies and births, as well as during the postpartum period. Islanders that choose to work with a midwife will likely have the choice of a birth at home or in hospital.

Rayner said a steering committee has been struck, involving a family physician, an obstetrician, a nurse practitioner and the deputy minister of health. Two individuals have been hired to lead in the development of the program.

The province plans to hire three midwives when the program is in place, but Rayner said more may be needed. The province has allocated $650,000 for the program’s development.

Melissa Roberts, P.E.I.’s midwifery program development lead, said some details about the program are still being developed, such as regulations and amendments to the Registered Health Professionals Act.

“We do have great opportunity to learn from the mistakes of other provinces when they were implementing their programs and also what was successful,” Roberts said in a phone interview.

“We want to have time to have midwives working, getting into the hospitals, building relationships before they’re actually doing deliveries of their own.”

Although most births in Canada involving midwives occur in hospitals, they are trained to perform births at home.

Roberts, who currently works in Alberta, said many expectant parents are more comfortable with being in their own space.

“When midwives are looking at performing a homebirth, we’re really looking at: is that client low-risk? Do they live close to a hospital?” she said.

“There’s a very in-depth conversation that happens.”

The povince’s delays in rolling out for midwifery have been frequently criticized in the legislature.

“This has taken far, far too long,” Green Opposition Leader Peter Bevan-Baker told The Guardian.

“I get that there are regulations and legislative things that have to be put in place. But we’re not reinventing the wheel here.”

One question that remains will be whether the province will need more than three midwives to offer 24-7 coverage. Bevan-Baker said he has concerns with this, but did not know if this would be enough.

Roberts acknowledged numbers are a concern. She said the province is considering an additional midwiferyled position. This individual would spend half of their time on clinical work and the other half on administrative and committee work.

“It is, for sure, a concern that three midwives isn’t a lot to start,” Roberts said.