By Barbara Roden
North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice is on a fact-finding mission in rural British Columbia communities to listen to parents, advocates and service providers talk about access to health care, particularly maternity care.
“More health care is being centralized, and while the ‘hub and spoke’ model is not necessarily a bad thing, there is a struggle with the centralization of maternity services,” says the NDP rural health-care spokesperson.
“Research has found that the further a woman travels for maternity care, the greater the risk to both mother and baby.”
Rice lives in, and represents, the second-largest riding in the province in terms of geography. “We have a big area, but a small population; only 23,000.”
Many expectant mothers in her riding have to travel to larger centres, such as Prince Rupert, to have their babies, and must leave home four weeks before their due date; longer in the case of higher-risk pregnancies.
This means mothers must find and pay for accommodation and meals for a month or more, and are far away from their support system of family and friends.
The trigger for Rice’s fact-finding tour was a group of women in the Peace area who said that they had to drive four hours for maternity care.”
Rice says the situation has improved in some areas. All mothers from Haida Gwaii once had to leave the area to have their babies, but there are now two midwives who are able to assist with low-risk pregnancies, delivering some 20 babies a year.
This has led to less stress on the part of mothers and their families, she adds.
“Many young First Nations women have never been to a big city, and they want their mother and aunties there for support. It’s important to them that giving birth goes back to being a big event in the community. One elder said to me ‘We can’t be born here, and we can’t die here’.”
Rice acknowledges that there can’t be caesarian-section back-up in every town, which isn’t sustainable in small communities, but she thinks there should be more support for families.
She also believes there’s “a happy medium” between a “medicalized” way of delivering babies and a more holistic approach.
“Something as natural as childbirth has become a medical procedure, during which women not only have the stress of having a baby, but also the stress of travelling, finding accommodation and not having a support network.”
Health estimates will be coming when the provincial budget is tabled in February, and Rice says there will be an opportunity to question Health Minister Terry Lake in greater detail about where health-care dollars are being spent.
“Minister Lake is interested in rural health and rural maternity care, and it will be interesting to see what the government’s position is. I’ll be able to offer recommendations and take the opportunity to ask questions.”
Barbara Roden is the Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal editor.