UPDATE: May 8 2020 - The suspension of home birth services in Nova Scotia has been reversed!
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CALL TO ACTION
The IWK Health Centre and Nova Scotia Health Authority issued a joint statement Monday March 30 to announce a suspension of midwifery-led home births in the province. The decision was made without the consultation of midwives.
Consider getting in touch with the team behind these measures to voice your support for home birth in Nova Scotia during the pandemic:
The Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM) and the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM) issued a joint statement April 3rd emphasizing their support of out-of-hospital birth for low-risk clients and the importance of including midwives in decision-making during the pandemic:
”As hospitals see a surge in COVID-19 in the coming weeks and months, midwives can play an important role in reducing the number of patients entering and overburdening these facilities. Midwives are experts in supporting birth in out-of-hospital settings, such as in homes and birth centres, and can provide key insights to the healthcare system during this pandemic.
We recommend:
• Maintaining home birth as it continues to be a safe place to give birth for many clients. • Utilizing birth centres as key birthing locations for all healthy people and using them to full capacity during this crisis. • Establishing temporary birth centres and sites that are independent of acute care, to keep healthy people out of hospitals. • Including provincial and territorial midwifery associations at decision making tables regarding perinatal care.” (Midwives as Essential Primary Care Providers in the Context of COVID-19 Statement issued on April 3, 2020, CAM and NACM)
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The International Confederation of Midwives also issued a comprehensive guide on March 29 urging against inappropriate protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic that harm the human rights and well-being of birthing people, and their babies:
”In countries where the health systems can support home birth, healthy women experiencing a normal pregnancy and with support from qualified midwives, with appropriate emergency equipment, may be safer birthing at home or in a primary maternity unit/birth centre than in a hospital where there may be many patients (even non-maternity patients) with Covid-19.” (7. ICM OFFICIAL STATEMENT Women’s Rights in Childbirth Must be Upheld During the Coronavirus Pandemic)
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The decision in Nova Scotia comes on the heels of a March 19 suspension of home birth in the province of Quebec; a policy made without the input of families and midwives, that seemed to counter public health advice handed down by the Ministry of Health and Social Services: ”While the rest of Quebec's population is called to stay home and avoid hospital settings without symptoms related to COVID-19 or urgent medical conditions, pregnant women are now being asked to move to the hospital, an environment conducive to infection, when they chose home delivery in the absence of a pregnancy complication?“ (COVID 19 Press Release - March 21 2020, Regroupement Naissance-Renaissance and Groupe Maman) Quebec has since reversed the decision to suspend home birth and issued a much more nuanced policy update that better reflects public health evidence, as well as the needs and safety of frontline healthcare workers, clients, and their newborns during these uncertain times.
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Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM) president Nathalie Pambrun was interviewed by Today’s Parent Magazine, “Choice of birthplace, especially in the context of the pandemic, must be decided by midwives and childbearing families following best available evidence,” Pambrun says, adding that there is no evidence to support that home birth is unsafe for the midwives or the client when they are using personal protective equipment. “People will continue to have home births regardless of suspension of services. It is the duty and scope of midwives to ensure access to care for people who want to birth at home.” (Today’s Parent - March 31, 2020 - Nova Scotia has cancelled all home births—could it happen in other provinces? )
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
To share how the Nova Scotia home birth suspension will impact you, or others in the province, consider sharing your story on our Community Story Blog.
