Although women's healthcare in Canada continues to be a complex issue, a recent move by the UCP government to expand access to midwifery services in Alberta has captured some additional attention.
On Feb. 13, Alberta’s government set forth an investment of $10 million over three years to implement the comprehensive new Alberta Midwifery Strategy.
The government says it is committed to ensuring Albertans can access high-quality maternal health care anywhere in the province.
The thought provoking question, however, is how much of that amount reaches local midwifery clinics.
According to statistical data, as of January 2025, there were only 181 midwives were practicing across the province. That reflects a 26 per cent increase from 2020.
The current list of issues surrounding midwifery care in Alberta include limited access to the services, under compensation of midwives, and the impact of these two factors on maternal health.
For example, there only six registered midwives practicing in Airdrie currently, but they serve a huge territory which draws in women from around the region.
Working out of Midwives Airdrie - Birth Partnership Clinic, teams of three to provide their services within Airdrie and neighbouring cities and hamlets.
"We have a team of one midwife, a team of two, and a team of three," Airdrie Midwives' office administrator and intake coordinator, Shaira Montgomery, explained. "A team of three takes different turns taking on call shifts, so they would have more time off."
A registered midwife at the Airdrie Midwives clinic, Julie Pohoresky, shares she and her fellow midwives are looking forward to new provincial funding for various reasons.
“For retention of our current workforce; we’re still trying to increase the number of midwives that are in the province,” Pohoresky said. “We could use more midwives, especially rurally ... We hope to increase the number of midwives at our office with the new funding."
Alberta has the lowest number of midwives compared to other provinces like Ontario and B.C.
Ontario currently has more than 850 midwives registered with the College of Midwives of Ontario (CMO). Whereas, B.C. has over 500 registered midwives with the Midwives Association of British Columbia (MABC).
Midwives in Airdrie often burn out because they are constantly overworked.
"I'm the person that sees everybody come into the clinic; we continuously have a wait list of people wanting midwives... that is hard," Montgomery said.
The President of the Alberta Association of Midwives (AAM), Marita Obst, said that approximately 60 percent of their workforce is mainly in Calgary and Edmonton.
“Even if you consider the larger urban or smaller urban centres like Grand Prairie, Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary, about 75 per cent of midwives are working there,” she added.
To provide context to the reality emphasized by Obst, take a look at the map of midwifery practices in Alberta. In the rural areas, there are very few of Alberta’s midwifery workforce available to provide services despite increasing demand.
Pohoresky says midwives in Airdrie provide their services to many nearby rural remote communities, especially prenatal care for people that live within an hour radius of the city.
An Airdrie Midwives rural client from Didsbury, Alta., Marijke Edwards, shared that being in rural Alberta, her options were limited.
"Being in Didsbury, my only two options for having a home birth with a midwife was having a midwife from Airdrie or Red Deer; both locations about an hour away," Edwards said.
While Edwards appreciated "the utmost care" provided to her during both of her pregnancies, she says it would be nice to have access to midwives closer to home for all the prenatal and post-natal appointments.
"To avoid the stress of worrying about whether or not the midwives will make it to your house on time for the arrival of baby, and to save travel time for midwives," Edwards said.
“We look forward to that funding to help support more rural practices [especially] to support midwives to drive to [these areas] because we are their primary care providers…” Pohoresky expressed.
Pohoresky believes that the ability for midwives to be able to drive out to rural areas would be a game-changer.
“We’d like to focus on the training of midwives, [especially] the training of midwives and the practicing midwives to support that,” she added.
“Even though we are the third highest province, we’re lagging far behind what we actually need to meet the demand,” Obst stated. “We definitely need more [midwives]!”
That said, geographical barriers significantly impact some communities more than others. For example: Indigenous communities.
In Indigenous communities limited healthcare infrastructure is already a growing concern.
“In Alberta, there’s a higher morbidity and mortality rate for Indigenous families and midwife care for Indigenous communities can help address that increased maternal morbidity and mortality rates,” Obst stated.
Lack of hospitals contributes to service gaps both in Indigenous communities as well as other rural areas.
"I hope that rural Alberta would see the acceptance of midwives in small towns; so more women may receive the excellent care that midwifery has to offer," Edwards expressed.
But, of course, its not just smaller towns which are underserved by Alberta healthcare system. The City of Airdrie is one of the fastest growing cities in Alberta, but it does not have a hospital to serve its approximate population of 80,649.
A new study conducted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) has shown that increasing the involvement of midwives in deliveries could have a significant positive impact.
“Even a modest increase in coverage of midwife-delivered interventions could avert 22 per cent of maternal deaths, 23 per cent of neonatal deaths, and 14 per cent of stillbirths, equating to 1.3 million deaths averted per year by 2035.”
“It really just shows strongly that we need higher access to midwifery care, especially for Indigenous communities,” Obst said.
Obst notes that while she is unsure how the government will allocate funds to support and sustain Alberta's midwifery workforce, AAM remains hopeful about collaborating with the government to ensure the midwifery workforce remains healthy and stable.
To learn more about Canadian midwives, visit the link here.
