December 13, 2004
Women in Manitoba will have better access to Aboriginal midwives through a new, innovative $1.6-million training program, Health Minister Tim Sale and Advanced Education and Training Minister Diane McGifford announced today.
"The availability of accredited midwives in Aboriginal communities will help ensure the mother and her baby have access to culturally and medically appropriate maternal and newborn care in their home communities," said Sale. "I want to thank the elders and community representatives for their valuable contributions of knowledge and support. As we move forward, communities will continue to be involved in the development and implementation of this important new program."
The Aboriginal Midwifery Education Program (AMEP) will provide midwifery students with a blend of traditional Aboriginal and Western methods of practice, and will include both classroom and clinical components. When their education is complete, the midwives will provide culturally appropriate birthing services primarily to remote and northern Aboriginal communities in Manitoba and in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
"This new program will provide culturally appropriate, community-based education and will be the first Aboriginal midwifery education program in Canada to prepare its graduates for registration with their provincial regulatory body," said McGifford. "The Aboriginal Midwifery Education Program will not only improve access to career opportunities for Aboriginal women, but will also benefit families and communities across Manitoba’s North."
"This is an excellent initiative that will greatly benefit the Aboriginal communities. We welcome the opportunity to continue our close relationship with our friends and partners in Manitoba by working together in the implementation of Manitoba’s Aboriginal Midwifery Education Program. We are excited about the obvious potential for collaboration between this program and our 12-year-old Maternal Care Services Program being further developed by our Nunavut Arctic College," Nunavut Health and Social Services Minister Levinia Brown said.
Early in 2005, the Northwest Territories will introduce the profession of midwifery to provide mothers the choice of giving birth in their home communities.
"The Aboriginal Midwifery Education Program will provide northerners the opportunity to receive accredited training," said Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Minister Michael Miltenberger. "I look forward to working with my colleagues in Manitoba to explore how N.W.T. residents can participate in the program and then bring these skills back to their home communities."
"This new Aboriginal Midwifery Education Program is an integral approach towards re-establishing our social and cultural heritage," said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine. "It is extremely important that expectant mothers have the right to deliver their babies in their own communities, in their own homes, rather than in a sterile hospital environment, far removed from their families. I applaud the Government of Manitoba for taking this innovative step, which is really a rediscovery of First Nations’ traditional practices."
"The Aboriginal Midwifery Education Program will take the best from First Nation traditions and from Western medicine, and will give the gift of sharing in the birth of a new life back to First Nation people," said Dennis White Bird, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. "It is important that First Nation communities have programs such as the AMEP, but it is also important that they have the infrastructure and access to modern medical tools that will allow our communities to be better prepared to care for our people—starting with their first breath."
This degree-based education program will be delivered by the University College of the North. Ten students will be enrolled in the first year of the program with five students enrolled in each subsequent year.
Manitoba Health, in collaboration with other stakeholders, submitted the AMEP proposal to the Aboriginal envelope of Health Canada’s Primary Health Care Transition Fund. The full funding request was approved and was one of 11 proposals approved out of more than 130 submissions.
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BACKGROUNDER
The goals of the Aboriginal Midwifery Education program include:
addressing maternal and newborn health practices for Aboriginal women, their families and communities;
ensuring equitable access and quality services for Aboriginal communities and providing services closer to home;
reducing recruitment and retention issues for health providers in Aboriginal communities;
increasing the representation of indigenous health care providers in Manitoba; and
improving health outcomes in Aboriginal communities over the longer term.
The benefits of midwifery
Midwives provide continuity of care and a wide range of maternal and newborn services. Some of the long-term benefits of midwifery care include the provision of:
information on diet and exercise that can help reduce the likelihood of a low birth weight baby, the likelihood of complications and the need for costly, invasive medical procedures;
information on the harmful effects of smoking and drug and alcohol use during pregnancy and their potential to cause complications for the woman and physical and/or mental complications for the baby;
information on the positive effects of breastfeeding such as long-term health benefits for the baby;
both physical and emotional support to pregnant women who experience social difficulties such as violence, addictions and poverty; and
one-to-one care provided by midwives that helps teach women how to be healthy so they will give birth to healthy babies. When a healthy mother gives birth to a healthy baby with a normal birth weight that is breast-fed and provided with appropriate newborn care, the baby has a much greater chance of living a healthy life, thereby reducing costs to the health care system.
Northern regional health authorities have developed a community health centre model where social service agencies and primary health care teams work collaboratively to better serve the population. Midwives will be an integral part of community health services.
Midwives working as part of a primary health care team will also partner with other social service agencies and organizations to ensure quality service provision.