May 10, 2008 Women living on the First Nation Communities of Sunchild and O’Chiese now have greater access to prenatal care, thanks to a new program at Rocky PCN called the Collaborative Shared Care Maternity Services.
Moms-to-be from the two First Nations often have to travel great distances for prenatal care in Rocky Mountain House. Access to prenatal care can be hampered by long drives, poor roads and driving conditions. In fact, out of the total 150 births at Rocky Hospital in 2005, 10% of moms had not received any prenatal care.
Since Rocky PCN’s mandate is to provide coordinated comprehensive community-based maternity care, creative brainstorming was needed to reach these First Nations women.
“Instead of sitting around wondering ‘what can we do for these moms?’, people had the courage to try something different,” says Lorna Milkovich, Rocky PCN’s Executive Director.
The Rocky PCN, David Thompson Health Region, and Health Canada’s First Nations and Inuit Health joined together to fund the Shared Care Maternity Program. The new program debuted at the beginning of March.
The services are built around a team of family physicians, nurses, and a brand new team member - a Registered Midwife, Barb Bodiguel.
Barb has been a Registered Midwife in Central Alberta for 23 years. Formerly in private practice, she’s now taken on a new role as a team member of the Rocky Mountain House PCN.
Barb works within the PCN team to offer pre, intra and postnatal care to low-risk women in the Rocky Mountain House area. She has admitting privileges at the hospital, and attends births there, sharing call duties with the roster of physicians from the PCN.
Four days a month, she travels to the Sunchild First Nations and the O’Chiese First Nations to bring prenatal care closer to home. Barb’s visits include individualized care, prenatal assessments and labwork collection.
Barb is excited about her new role. “I’ve had such a positive welcome at the PCN. I’m happy I will be able to see women who may not previously been able to access a midwife’s support for financial reasons.”
“The response to having Barb at our PCN has been phenomenal. The moms have really taken to her,” shares Lorna. “It is early days, but I think this program can really make a difference.”