Calgary HeraldPublished: Thursday, May 08, 2008
Re: "Midwives optimistic province will fund services," May 6.
I had a baby in 2006, and if I could have afforded a midwife, I would have used one. My birth experience at the Rockyview Hospital was not pretty. I had three post-operative infections within six weeks of delivering. My wait times at the urgent care were long and sometimes I had to go back a few times in one day to get results of another test that had to be performed.
I think the province needs to address this issue of funding midwives. Prenatal visits with a doctor in this city are only 10 to 15 minutes long, once every four weeks until four weeks before you deliver. Then you get to go once a week for your 15 minutes. The postnatal care is minimal and your time is cut to seven minutes. The care you can receive with a midwife would be one-hour appointments and for postnatal care, they come to your home to take care of you and baby. This would take a load off the hospitals and doctors, and give the mothers the care and attention they need at this special time in their lives. I hope funding for midwives will be in place the next time I have a baby.
