Midwifery Helps Families Grow
In our new blog segment, the Alberta Association of Midwives is sitting down with midwives and other care providers throughout the province for an inside look at midwifery in Alberta and the important topics that make our profession unique, personal and compelling.
As midwifery continues to grow across our province, midwives are seeing more and more repeat clients as families welcome new siblings.
Today, we're sitting down with Carla McLeod, the office assistant at the busy Midwives of Grande Prairie practice who have seen their percentage of repeat clients double in size since opening four years ago. We discuss how midwives support growing families, the difference midwifery care can make for the birth experience and what it's like to work alongside the incredible midwives in our province.
Hi Carla, thank you for making time to chat with us today! How many families have been supported by the Midwives of Grande Prairie this year?
This year, the Midwives of Grande Prairie have supported 80 births (including two this morning!).
Our midwives are in the clinic twice a week and then out in the community on the other days. Prenatal visits are done in clinic, and the postpartum visits are done at the client's house on days 1, 3 and 5 and at the clinic at 2, 4 and 6-weeks postpartum.
What kinds of families have been supported by Midwives of Grande Prairie?
So, last week we welcomed a little guy who is the second family to have had three babies with the Midwives of Grande Prairie!
We've seen families grow from being a young married couple all the way to a family of five! It's really special to be able to create those kinds of connections with people and their families. We get to become a really intimate part of their lives.
The number of repeat families we're seeing is also growing. In 2021, 20% of our clients were repeats, in 2022, that number is 30%, and in 2023 we expect it will be 40%! Some days we're seeing more repeat clients than new clients, and I think that really speaks to how much we're becoming a part of the community four years into opening the practice.
What is something you wish more people know about midwifery in Alberta?
I wish more people understood what midwifery is in general!
For myself, I had my three babies before a midwifery practice existed in Grande Prairie. But what I really notice is different about midwifery is just the availability and time that midwives dedicate to their clients. When I was seeing a doctor for my pregnancies, the visits were really short, and I would have to make sure I came prepared with all of my questions in advance. With midwives, clients can email any time, and their midwife will get back to them, and midwives are able to dedicate a lot more time and attention at each appointment. Midwives are also available 24/7 for emergencies. There's a real human element to midwifery that just isn't always possible with physician care. We also get to know our clients; we're on a first-name basis, we know who is about to have their baby and what their birth hopes and birth plans are. Midwifery is really grounded in building relationships.
How has midwifery impacted your own life?
As someone who gets to work alongside them, I see how much midwives really care about their clients and the essential things that they bring to the community. And for me, that's just really inspiring. I have such a cool job!
What are some anxieties about birth and parenthood that midwives can help pregnant people, new parents, and families work through?
While I don't see this side of the appointment as much, I have heard clients say that during birth, they knew they could do it because their midwives empowered them to feel like they could do it!
Midwifery is all about providing information and empowering clients to make their own choices. So, whatever the anxiety is, a midwife can talk them through it and give the information they need to feel confident. Our appointments are a minimum of 30 minutes, and your midwife will go through what to expect, discuss your birth plan, come to your home if you want a home birth and literally walk you through what to expect. All of that preparation helps alleviate those natural anxieties!
What is the best part about working with midwives?
The babies! Also, clients are just so grateful to have care from midwives, a lot of them have had prenatal care with a doctor before, and most of them will tell you how different it is with a midwife. It's also just so special to watch families grow!
How do we explain a new baby to other siblings? How can we involve them in the birth process?
Midwives get to know not just the client but also the family. So, they'll know the siblings by name, and they'll do stuff like letting them listen to the baby’s heartbeat, help measure baby postpartum and just, in general, involve the whole family in care and let siblings be hands-on with the experience.
What does a day-in-the-life look like as an office manager at a busy midwifery clinic?
It's a lot of visiting with the clients; I like to get to know our clients! I'm the first face they see, so I get to know them and their birth plan. There are always lots of siblings running around the office (often babies the Midwives of Grande Prairie helped deliver!). I also do all of the paperwork, schedule appointments and plan our capacity (we plan nine months ahead at a time 😉).
The hardest part of my day is talking to clients that we are not able to bring into care. At this time, we get about four times as many requests for care as we are able to accommodate. So, we have to turn people away, and that's really difficult. A lot of our clients are driving up to two hours to be able to access our services. We're the only clinic north of Edmonton and south of High Level, so the demand is just far exceeding our capacity right now. We hope that we can continue to grow midwifery care in Alberta, especially in these smaller communities.
The Alberta Association of Midwives promotes the growth and sustainability of midwives and midwifery services in Alberta. We tell the stories of midwives in our province so that the profession of midwifery is understood, respected and valued in our communities.
If you have a story to share about midwifery in Alberta, connect with us to be featured in a future blog post.
