Greetings all, brief introductions are in order I suppose. I'm a Sasky
from Moose Jaw originally, relocated in Regina at this time and raising
my family in the only way I know best - in North Central where the
livin' is cheap and the bus ride to work is short and smelly (I do heart
public transit!).
I'm not new to the birth scene by any means, I
mean I entered into it at the ripe age of 19 armed with my copy of the
Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and a desire to connect with other young
mothers about this whole business of babies. It didn't really happen
for me the way I imagined it would though - I had to find out through a
series of hoops and stabs at post secondary education and eventually a
nursing degree to figure out that something was awry and change was
possible.
By the time I was expecting my second baby I had figured out that women didn't have to be rushed into the ER via frantic husband, wheeled into a sterile room, pumped full of drugs and eventually go home stunned with a freshly hospital-water anointed screaming bundle of joy. It might seem a little cliche, but I learned about it in a locally produced guide to environmental living in Saskatchewan and the name of a midwife was mentioned. I had a friggin degree in nursing and I had no idea that there was a midwife in Saskatchewan, let alone in MY community, and that babies were being born at home.
This all seemed like an ideal arrangement for everyone, the whole paying part was a bit of a bummer (however - I got a pretty wicked deal out of staying home AND having personalized health care who would work with my budget and trade husband-labor if we had to for baby-delivering-labor). I was pretty excited, my husband (his first venture) was scared about the whole thing, and really it all seemed too good to be true. It kinda was, we found out that Saskatchewan was legalizing and funding midwifery for all, which meant that my awesome midwife now had no license and wasn't an employee of the government/health region, or whatever... anyway we lost our magically delicious home birth and ended up with a perfectly mundane and uneventful hospital birth.
I don't want to seem bitter or upset about this, because in the end we got our screaming bundle of joy (who screamed for the first year, I might add) and we're happy with the outcome of it all. But now we find ourselves, almost three years down the line, with so-called "funded midwifery" here to stay, and we're still facing uncertainty in our birth "place". In Saskatoon, there are midwives up and running around frantically attending home births and hospital births, and they are damn busy. We have snagged the lonely local midwife, and we think a new one is arriving shortly, but the situation around a home birth isn't really written in any stone. My husband is still scared about the baby and the method of entering the world and is turning to me, his nurse/wife for some answers. Frankly I know very little, any sort of answer about what is happening is pretty much going to "be determined" as time goes by.
Anyway - I'm taking things into my own hands. I've been in contact with an organization called Mothers of Change www.mothersofchange.com and they are looking out for maternal issues in Canada that need assistance. It's a little bit different from province to province but the gist is the same. Basically if you tap into any kind of birth issues in North America you'll come across similar trends, although every community has a slightly different spin. Saskatoon, while they do have midwifery up and running, are still turning clients away. The implications are - more hospital births, more interventions possibly? Moms who could be giving birth at home are taking up bed space on the maternity ward?
Currently seeking out young and energetic, or just plain energetic people to come and help us get started. So far, a few of us mommas have dedicated small amounts of time to advancing birth in our community by joining Mothers of Change. You really don't even have to be a birthing mother.
If you're interested in helping us out, feel free to email me,
. More projects are coming down the pipe soon, including a post card campaign to our MLA's, Hon. Minister of Health, as well as the CEO of the RQHR and various health regions around the province. We're mothers, we want some choices in where we're birthing our babies, and we want to be treated with dignity and respect while we're starting our families.
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