Expansion of permanent midwifery privileges at The Ottawa Hospital
Dear Dr. Mark Walker, Dr. Virginia Roth and Mr. Cameron Love,
As a former midwifery client, I would like to advocate for the expansion of permanent midwifery privileges at The Ottawa Hospital. I am troubled to know that there are people currently on waitlists for midwifery care who will not be able to have a midwife due to restrictions on midwifery hospital privileges. These restrictions impact the ability of birthing people in Ottawa to have both their care provider and birth place of choice.
In April 2019, the Champlain Maternal Newborn Regional Program released a Region-Wide Maternal Newborn Health Services Capacity Plan – Phase 1 that outlines our community’s needs for maternal newborn health services. One of the ten recommendations identified in this report, recognizing that demand for midwifery care in this region surpasses its availability, calls for “midwifery privileging processes at each hospital [to] be reviewed and opportunities to increase the number of midwifery supported births at OBWC should be explored.”
I am grateful to have received excellent midwifery care during two pregnancies and births in Ottawa (2014 and 2017). In both cases, I chose to have home births, with the confidence that if a hospital transfer had been required, my chosen care providers would have been authorized to accompany me with full privileges. The positive impact of continuity of care on maternal and neonatal outcomes has been well documented and The Ottawa Hospital should be striving to expand permanent access to midwives rather than making midwifery privileges more precarious.
I look forward to hearing from you on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Norah Lynn Paddock