Manitoba failing expectant moms who want a midwife

This summer, four practising Manitoba midwives will be out of a job once their term positions end.

This, despite the fact that all four are graduates of a University College of the North midwifery training program the province invested millions of dollars in and heralded as a panacea to the midwifery shortage.

Yet today, Manitoba still has not committed to creating permanent jobs for more than half of its grads.

"The government that is now in place has been hesitant to giving every student a permanent job," said Geralyn Reimer, president of the Midwives Association of Manitoba. "And some of the implications of that are already happening."

Manitoba has a chronic shortage of practising midwives and right now, more than 75 per cent of expectant mothers who want a midwife can't get access to one.

Back in 2006, the University College of the North (UCN) launched a multi-million-dollar midwifery program with a mandate to solve the midwife shortage, especially in remote northern communities. In 2011, when the province launched a $3.2-million birthing centre in Winnipeg, it vowed that grads from this program would help staff the centre.

But the program consistently ran into problems. There weren't enough practising midwives available to train practicum students.

Then the province tried to relocate the program to Winnipeg, which forced several northern students to abandon it because they could not afford to relocate to the city. Later, the program collapsed altogether.

In the end, just eight students graduated over the program's eight-year period. Of the seven who are employed in Manitoba, four of those jobs are term gigs, scheduled to end this summer.

Only one of those midwives is working up north, and Winnipeg's state-of-the-art birthing centre is still chronically short of midwives.

"Manitoba has really been dragging its feet in getting the positions up," Reimer said, who remains hopeful the province will eventually commit to the funding needed to make the jobs permanent.

But the longer the delay, the harder it will be for regional health authorities to attract and retain midwives, she said.

"Who would be willing to relocate to a community, for a temporary position?" she asked.

Manitoba's health minister was not available for comment, though a provincial spokesperson confirmed the numbers.

A spokesperson from CUPE, the union representing Manitoba's midwives, would not comment.

Meanwhile last week, NDP leadership hopeful Theresa Oswald promised that if elected she would find the funding to create 20 permanent midwifery positions.