Do you care about midwifery? If so, please act on this...

Please share with your clients and colleagues; make some noise. This has been raised with the provincial Minister of Health. Form-letter and contact info below. To all who care about birth options in Saskatchewan:

There is a critical shortage of midwives in Saskatchewan. Far too many women who want midwifery services are being turned down. The Minister of Health needs to hear from stake-holders who wish to see midwifery grow in our province.

Saskatchewan currently has no midwifery education program. As a result, the only option for Saskatchewan’s women to become midwives is to pursue studies elsewhere. In order to complete a midwifery degree, student midwives need clinical experience with a licensed midwife. The Saskatchewan College of Midwives, the regulatory body, prohibits students from training with licensed midwives until they graduate, which is a “catch-22” situation, since the clinical training is a graduation requirement. This is preventing senior degree students from graduating and growing our pool of midwives.

We must affect change to the current regulations before we will see more midwives in Saskatchewan. The Minister of Health needs to hear from us, the electorate, that changes need to be made today!

Please help us share this message with the Saskatchewan Minister of Health. Here's a sample letter you can e-mail:

April 19, 2012

Honourable Don McMorris
Minister of Health
Room 302, Legislative Building
2405 Legislative Drive
Regina, SK S4S 0B3

By email: minister.he@gov.sk.ca

Dear Minister McMorris;

Thank you for caring enough about Saskatchewan’s mothers and babies to be pro-active about the current midwifery shortage we are experiencing. As you know, there are far more requests for midwives in Saskatchewan than the existing pool of midwives can accommodate.

We are asking you today to remove the barriers that prevent student midwives from completing the clinical portions of their midwifery education at home and in our communities. This would help ease the critical shortage of midwives, and create tremendous opportunities to retain a home grown pool of birth support services in our province.

Please give Saskatchewan women the birth options they deserve by committing to training and retaining as many midwives as possible so we can keep growing our wonderful, diverse birth community.

Thank you,