The Illusion of Midwifery in Saskatchewan; written by Lisa Wass

There are good reasons to celebrate the recent regulation and funding for midwifery services in Saskatchewan. Acknowledgement by our provincial health care system that homebirth is safe and that midwifery is a credible and necessary profession has been a long time coming.

For many years, health care professionals who considered midwifery unscientific and irresponsible have mistreated those who have chosen the midwifery model of care. As a consequence, mothers and babies have been very limited in their birth choices for decades. Truth be known, midwifery care is a scientifically sound, natural approach to normal pregnancy, birth and early parenting. It provides a standard of care that cannot be duplicated by any other system; indeed, midwives are specialists in normal birth.

The greater concern now is that the government has left it up to each individual health region to hire midwives and develop delivery systems. Saskatoon and Regina are set to hire midwives, but are having trouble recruiting the minimum numbers needed—a news release erroneously identified that each city had already recruited four midwives. In fact, no hiring has been verified.

Furthermore, there is a national shortage of midwives. Even Manitoba (whose midwifery system Saskatchewan is modeled after) has yet to meet the numbers required since its implementation in 2003. It is conceivable that, while highly desirable, funded midwifery care will not be readily accessible in Saskatchewan for perhaps more than a decade.

Midwives hired by Saskatchewan health regions will also be subject to strict restrictions on their home birth practice. In urban areas such as Saskatoon, midwives will not be permitted to serve women in a home birth capacity outside of the city limits. This is a rural province; more than half of all midwifery clients in Saskatchewan reside in rural areas.

There is room in the legislation for independent midwives to continue to work outside of the regional health districts. However, the added exorbitant cost of liability insurance, coupled with the fact that Saskatchewan health has chosen not to fund private practice, will be yet another limiting factor to accessing midwifery care. Independent midwives will need to charge more than double their currents rates just to break even under the new regulations. So, while the provincial government should be applauded for funding midwifery, effectively half of the current consumer base has just lost access to the birth services they hold dear.

Experience from other provinces, like B.C.—which has taken this same funding and jurisdiction route—would indicate that Saskatchewan can expect an increase in the number of unregulated midwives and ‘unassisted’ home births, as women scramble for options outside of hospital settings to bring their children into the world. Without consumer outcry for more flexible implementation and local midwifery education programs to combat the shortage, accessible and funded midwifery care in Saskatchewan is merely an illusion.

Our year in Review...

We started a new adventure this year and used the KONOS curriculum to guide us in some learning fun.


I was also part of an on-line Konos co-op of moms from all over North America. It was so amazing! Community, accountability, and still so much independence to raise your family.


As much as I need a summer vacation I am really looking forward to next year. The core of it all is a focus on developing children with strong, Godly character traits. All our studies and adventures spring boarded from the traits we were working on. This year we worked on developing trust, patience, honour and orderliness.
I decided to post the pictures we took of many of our activities over the past 6 months. We often forgot the camera, so this is just a sample of the fun we had. Mason and Parker have helped out with all of the captions. If you wish to see a full sized photo just click on the image.

Welcome to the Green Nose Schooner! We arghsss Pirates!

Watering the men

Looking for Land....Notice how the ship got the name green nose?
Cannons to keep the bad guys away

I think I see me treasure. Charge!
Back Off or I'll sink YA!
Feeding the prisoner's from below deck...

Model Ship Building with DAD.

Paintings we made with only spray paint or blowing through straws




Painting our ships

Welcome Aboard a different kind of Ship...

GAte what?? Where exactly are we going?

Yuck- Airline food.

Sorry about the stale bun Liam!
In case of emergency please note the exit at the rear of the plane. Please do not jump out of the windows.

Hmmm... One of these buttons has to work.

Did we get gas?



This is your Captain speaking..
In flight movie time...The Fantastic 4- This must be 1st Class!

Ahhh, I finally found that auto-pilot button.






Preparing for landing.... Please remember that you and all your bages must be checked at customs.

Cat SCAN!

Pardon me , but we need you to answer some questions about these Nefr bullets we founf in your things...

Thank-you for flying T-W Airlines!! One more satisfied Customer!






Ethan and Liam's History of Flight Museum

And Navi
We made these



Now for something TASTY>>>>>>>

We made bread every day for 2 weeks!

Oui Oui I know I have a nice hat!




Mix Master PArker

Our First Loaves!







The Great Brownie Experiment.

AAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!



OH NO- DID THEY BURN?

Mmmm- smells good

Trust us they were good.

Yes- I am always reading. Either here or in my 'office'


Full bellies and a little relaxation.

YeasT and Mold- Now that makes me hungry!

Check out the experiment.

Do not try this at home----Just kidding












We just have so much love to give!

Purim PArty- Dress as a Bible Character or something that starts with P

The Reptile SHow

Pucker up Ethan! I think ha likes you.

I................T..h..i..n..k ..th..a..t .. is a...kid...t.a.k.ing..a..pic..ture..of..meeee.

Snakes.

Pregnant Woman?


Alligator













Dairy production show and

Pork Info.
Greg and Spirt the Owl.

We did not spell that wrong- He only has one EYE. The Owl- not greg.

Ethan has some backbone!


Parker stop beakin off.

We has a great time at Wanuskewin, Fran's House of Herbs, and The Herbarium with our friends.

Male or female plant ?
A fish with maggets- a dissection surprise-yuck The worm and frog were way better!


Dad with trees in the mountains in VAncouver.

The board where Mom hangs our stuff.


Click on it to see names.




Now that is some crowd.

We couldn't turn this picture. It is the poster of all the kingdoms of life that we made while learning about plant and animal classification. Can you spot the gold fish crackers?