No doctors for expectant mothers in Brooks

Pregnant women in the southern Alberta community of Brooks are being forced to go to other cities to have their babies because of a shortage of doctors.

Alberta Health Services says it is looking for a solution to the shortage in the community of about 13,500 that is 190 kilometres southeast of Calgary.

Women in Brooks can still get prenatal care, but have to travel to other communities to have their babies because doctors are no longer delivering in Brooks' 40-bed health centre, said Linda Iwasiw, president of the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.

"For the immediate time, the Brooks physicians are not able to offer delivery service unless it is an emergency," she said.

"We are in conversations and planning as we speak, with the goal of redeveloping a model of obstetrics care for the Brooks community up to and including deliveries."

Brooks resident Cindy Ward is planning to deliver in a hospital in Rocky Mountain House, where her parents live.

"I'm just going to kind of pitch a tent at my parents' place and wait until the baby comes," she said.

Ward's baby is expected in July, and although her biggest fear is her husband won't make the 400-kilometre trip in time, she said she's just glad she's due in the summer.

"We all know the weather's been pretty erratic around this area and I can't imagine if we got shipped off to Medicine Hat or Calgary and got stuck in the middle of a snowstorm," she said.

Trish Jump, who runs the Little Bo-tique maternity and children's store in Brooks, said her customers are upset about having to travel so far to have their babies, and are especially worried about arriving at a hospital and being told to check into a hotel because they aren't in active labour.

Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann says obstetric services in rural areas are declining and other smaller communities may soon follow Brooks and Banff, which suspended its obstetrics program earlier this month because of a shortage of nurses.

"The obstetric service provision in rural areas in Alberta has declined 20 per cent over the last five years, so it is shades of things to come, I'm afraid," he said.

Swann said the province needs to get back to the basics of medical care with home care, family doctors, obstetric services and prevention programs.