Great News for Midwifery in Alberta!

It's taken about 25 years of labour pains, but Alberta moms who want to use a midwife during childbirth will soon have the process covered by their provincial health insurance.

Facing questions on the subject from all three parties in the legislature, Health Minister Ron Liepert said midwifery will play an important role in the new prescription for the health system he's charged with unveiling over the next nine months.

"What we want to do is ensure that we integrate midwifery services into our delivery model, that it becomes no cost to the patient. But we want to do that in a way that fits our total health delivery system," said Liepert.

The change of direction will likely shock the midwifery industry, which has had trouble surviving in Alberta, the last province to not cover the service. Other jurisdictions began doing so because years of studies have shown midwife births to be safe and much cheaper to the system than using a doctor.

In fact, former NDP MLA Ray Martin, defeated in the recent provincial election, once commented to Sun Media that he had spent 25 years trying to get it covered.

And it was that type of pressure that brought the issue to the fore again this week. Commenting on Monday being the International Day of the Midwife, Alberta Liberal House Leader Laurie Blakeman seemed aghast that Alberta still didn't cover the procedure.

"We have decreasing capacity in the obstetrics field, we have increased demand with a surge in babies being born, but the government has dithered and studied and fought for almost 20 years, and no core funding for midwifery," she said.

"Let's remember that childbirth is not a disease. It is not poor health. It is a natural process. Most births are uncomplicated and do not require medical intervention."

Rookie NDP MLA Rachel Notley called it a blatantly "two-tiered, only the rich can choose model of health-care services for women and their babies."

That's absurd, said Liepert. "I acknowledge that we need to do a better job of integrating it into the system but unlike our friends in the opposition we're going to do this in an orderly manner, rather than just making a decision on the spot."

You can read the article here.