I did not know midwives before making a documentary about them. I had two children with doctors in the hospital, like almost everyone in Quebec.
I felt safe at the time because I couldn’t see the flip side of our system. Its rigidity forms a corridor in which we direct all those who carry life to make them follow the same path. Many come out shaken, hurt, like me. And this corridor, did you know, is expensive? More expensive. And it leads to more C-sections too.
The Quebec health system is overwhelmed by the normality of birth. We are experiencing a crisis in obstetrics and we continue to send 96% of pregnant women there, including those who have so-called low-risk pregnancies. All this, despite the fact that a delivery with a doctor in the hospital costs 25% more than a delivery in a birth center with midwives, who are nevertheless certified health professionals.
Hazard?
I can already hear the voices rising to remind us how dangerous childbirth can be for the life of the mother and the baby. We are lucky to have competent doctors to act when there are pathologies. And we are lucky to have experts in normality. They are both part of the same healthcare system, we don’t have to compromise. But it is still necessary to have access to their services.
If the government brags about the opening of each birth center, in reality, midwifery support is difficult to obtain and still unknown to the public; there was no midwifery pamphlet in my doctor’s office.
However, the government made a commitment in 2008 that there be midwives in all regions of the province and that they attend 10% of births. Elsewhere in the country and around the world, the practice of midwifery is gaining ground. Our neighbors in Ontario have a midwife support rate of 20% and in British Columbia it is 25%. In Quebec? 4%.
More suitable services
This person who carries life may be trans, immigrant, native, healthy, overweight, pregnant despite herself, who knows? She may have a physical disability, an intellectual disability or an autism spectrum disorder. And if this is the case, his crossing of the corridor of childbirth is likely to be even more difficult. So says a new report from the Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (IESSS). These women with disabilities also give life, like me. The services they receive are not sufficiently adapted to their reality; the information they need can be difficult to access and the attitudes of perinatal service providers are sometimes colored by prejudice, conclude the authors of the report. It’s as if we were asking pregnant women to adapt to the system instead of giving them our full support.
I’m suggesting something that may sound crazy a few days away from International Women’s Day; shouldn’t we let those who carry life tell us what they need? Take care of it and not treat births like knee surgery?
I propose to aim for excellence in health, as the name of the Institute, to allow all those who wish to be accompanied by whoever they want, to give birth where and how they wish.
I suggest that we place the woman who carries life at the top of the list of priorities. Let us love her, let us thank her, because if we are all here, it is thanks to her.
Claudie Simard, women’s health activist and documentary filmmaker