| |
Media
Articles in the media about YFFM.
Whitehorse Daily Star Article - April 13, 2007
By Stephanie
Waddell
When she moved to the Yukon from British Columbia,
Asheya
Hennessey
was pregnant and had been considering using the services of a midwife.
Learning that midwifery isn't covered under the
territorial medical services plan,
Hennessey
ended up giving birth to her son at Whitehorse General Hospital under a
doctor's care.
Since then,
Hennessey has been joined by
close to 20 others in starting a group pushing for midwifery to be
covered under health services in the territory.
"I really believe in options for women," she said.
As an educator,
Hennessey is also a strong
believer in people being able to make informed choices.
Though
Hennessey admits she doesn't know from experience, it's
her understanding that patients have more time with their midwife to go
through
their various choices around their child's birth as well
as to discuss the emotional aspects of
pregnancy.
At a doctor's office,
Hennessey noted, appointments
are usually just about 15
minutes long
without
the same amount of discussion she believes a patient might get from a
midwife.
When she started discussing this issue with others, she found it's a
service she not would have wanted(A) but also something others may have
used as well.
Thus the lobby group was born. The group is currently calling itself the
Yukon Midwifery Lobby Group, but is considering changing that name
because some have thought the group was made up of midwives.
Rather,
Hennessey said, the close-to 20 in the group are coming
from more of a consumer point of view in its lobbying.
Most of the group is made up of mothers of young children, though there
are also a couple of men, including
Hennessey's husband.
"It keeps growing," she said of the organization.
After meeting with Health and Social Services Minister Brad
Cathers
and a policy analyst,
Hennessey learned it would
likely be a least 2009 before midwifery could potentially be included as
part of the medical system.
The first step, she said, is looking at whether midwifery should be
recognized(B). That's where the government currently is.
"We're sort of blazing a new trail,"
Hennessey said.
If it's decided the services should be recognized, regulations would
have to be drawn up.
All of that also needs to be done in consultation with stakeholders, who
would likely include midwives, doctors, nurses and consumers.
Hennessey
hopes the department will include her group in its discussions.
In the meantime, the group is also working on plans for May 5,
International Midwives Day, to be on-hand at the Elijah Smith Building
downtown.
Anyone who would like to become involved with the group can contact
Hennessey
at 456-7711.
******
(A) sic
(B) this should say "regulated" rather than "recognized"
.
Letter to the Editor - March 27, 2007
There were some errors
in the Yukon News article, which we addressed in this letter to the
editor.
*******
Dear Editor,
I was glad to see the story on midwifery in the Monday, March 19 edition
of the Yukon News, and would like to clarify some of the points of the
article.
The headline read “Midwives push for government support,” but the group
that has been lobbying the government to include midwifery services
under the health care plan is not a group of midwives but a consumer
group of mostly Yukon moms of babies under two years old. We are not
trying to get our work funded, but rather are trying to get midwifery
services integrated into the health care system so that midwifery
services will be an accessible maternity care option for all women in
the Yukon in the future.
I would also like to clarify that the main reason I am in favour of
regulation of midwifery is to have midwifery services integrated into
the health care system, which includes funding. Government and other
bodies are generally interested in regulation primarily for consumer
safety.
To comment on the dissatisfaction of some midwives in regulated systems,
I think this just highlights how important it is that as we work toward
regulation, we include all the important stakeholders in the
discussions, so that we can come up with the best system for our unique
needs here in the Yukon. Our goal is to learn from what has been done in
other provinces and territories, in order to integrate midwifery into
the health care system in a way that is professionally viable for
midwives and provides the most choice for women.
I also want to make it clear to readers that our goal is a regulated,
funded system where women would have the choice of a home or hospital
birth with a midwife, as is the case in the Northwest Territories, BC,
Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nunavut. Midwifery services are
in the process of being regulated in Nunavut, although they are already
funded.
We would like to broaden our consumer voice, and so invite any Yukoner
who has an interest in seeing midwifery services become integrated into
the health care system to contact me at asheya@alumni.sfu.ca or at
456-7711.
Thank you,
Asheya Hennessey
Whitehorse, Yukon
Yukon News Article - March 19, 2007
By Sarah Fox
The Yukon Midwifery Lobby Group is one step closer to realizing its
dream of having its work funded by the Yukon government.
“We’re in the first part of the process of bringing up the question,
‘Should midwifery be regulated?’” said mother and lobbyist Asheya
Hennessey, after meeting with the government last week.
She’s in favour of regulation for consumer-safety.
As well, regulation would help establish protocols for midwifery in the
hospital, and with doctors and nurses, said Hennessey.
“Ultimately I’m interested in getting it funded, but for a health
profession to be funded it would first have to be regulated,” she said.
“I feel very positive and I feel that things are moving forward and that
there will be action taken on this issue.”
Hennessey gave birth to her son Elias in a hospital with a doctor just
over a year ago.
She would rather have had a midwife perform the birth, but could not
afford the $2,500 it would cost for private midwife services.
So Hennessey pulled together a group of mothers to lobby the government
to fund midwifery under the health act and medical services.
“We’re doing this, so a woman would be able to choose if she wanted a
doctor to be her primary caregiver for her maternity care, or if she
wanted a midwife to be her primary caregiver, so it would provide more
choices for women,” said Hennessey.
“Right now there are a few women who have that choice open to them.
“Some women just don’t feel comfortable having a home birth and some
women just don’t have $2,500, so it’s not really an option for all women
in the Yukon right now and we’d like to see that that becomes a choice
for all women.”
Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, as well as several provinces have
regulated and funded midwifery under their medical service plans.
“The reason why I personally value midwifery is because one of a
midwife’s mandates is informed choice for the woman,” said Hennessey.
“A lot of doctors just don’t have time in that 15-minute appointment to
go over all the different options for care and the risks and the
benefits to the different procedures and tests.
“A midwife really values a woman being able to make her choice based on
being educated.
“Midwives spend between half an hour and an hour in every appointment
talking to the woman and educating her about the issues that come up in
pregnancy and issues of childbirth and post partum.”
They discuss breast feeding versus formula feeding, drugs versus natural
pain management during labour, subjecting yourself to blood tests to
check for birth defects during pregnancy and other issues.
Local midwife Heather Ashthorn supports government funding, but is
concerned about what a regulated profession would look like.
She fears that her services would become less accessible to woman if
regulated and funded.
“There becomes a real system of permission, so midwives are permitted to
do low-risk births and not permitted to be involved in the care of
anybody with high risk.”
There are certain high-risk cases that a midwife wouldn’t accept, and
there are others they would, she said.
And those families might benefit from a midwife’s care.
“So you get a whole bunch of people who fall into that category who
really could quite likely have a better outcome than they would within
the western medical system, but they are not able to access midwifery
because midwives are not permitted to work with them,” said Ashthorn.
“It sort of shifts the accessibility more than it creates it.”
Ashthorn would like to see as much freedom of choice remain for women
and their families as they have in the Yukon’s current unregulated
system.
“Hopefully we’d have a choice where midwives are self-regulated and we’d
have a choice of what kind of a practice we’d like to be in,” she said.
“One of the things that I am really committed to standing up for is a
system where families still have as much choice as they do now — they
can choose a regulated midwife, they can chose an unregulated midwife,
they can choose their grandmother, they can give birth at home or in the
hospital, what ever they want to do to get access to that service.
“They can pay, they can not pay — whatever they need — and then the flip
side of that is that midwives are able to choose what kind of practice
they are in.
“That’s where I come from, it’s just creating choice for everybody and
making sure that that whole gamut is available.
“I’ve seen friends go through regulated systems in other provinces and
they are now grossly unsatisfied with the professions that they are in.
“They got into the profession for a completely different reason than
what they are able to provide now.
“That’s really sad and I think that’s a pretty harsh reality — to go
through all of that training to then become part of a system that you
don’t even like.”
The territory should have regulated and funded midwifery, said Yukon
Liberal leader Arthur Mitchell.
“Our party has long had a policy supportive of midwifery, so the Liberal
caucus supports including that in medical coverage.
However, it must be regulated and supported by legislation drafted in
consultation with all health practitioners, “to make sure everybody is
on board and onside and comfortable with it,” said Mitchell.
NDP leader, John Edzerza also supports funded midwifery in the
territory.
Women should have the choice to have their babies at home or in a
hospital, he said.
“From what I understand about it and from some of the ladies that I have
talked to, I think the comfort of home is a good thing too,” said
Edzerza.
“There’s not so much stress there, you feel relaxed … but of course
now-a-days it’s important that things are regulated and that’s probably
the process that will happen.”
|
