Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Fort Smith (May 21/01) - Hundreds of Fort Smith residents were born illegally, under the guiding hand of midwives, who the territorial government refuses to recognize as a bona fide heath-care professionals.
Now two of those midwives are about to open a birthing clinic on the Alberta side of the border.
Following a 10-year battle with politicians, doctors and insurance agents, a Fort Smith midwife will soon see the fruits of her labour and open a birthing clinic.
Because midwifery is not recognized as a medical profession in the Northwest Territories, the Nik'e Niya Community Birthing Centre will rise on the Alberta side of the 60th parallel, on land donated by Smith's Landing First Nation.
The force behind the new birthing centre is Lesley Paulette is an Alberta-licensed and insured midwife who has delivered nearly 400 babies in Fort Smith outside of the law.
"It's about two kilometers from downtown," Paulette said. "We're going to start clearing the land this summer and getting ready for construction in the fall."
The band has also provided some logs to build the post and beam construction that will be the core of a uniquely designed building. Joanne Lowell an architect formerly of Yellowknife, now living in Nelson B.C., has done some preliminary drawings for the 2,000 square-foot facility.
"Her specialty is designing birthing environments, so she is doing some conceptual plans for us," she said.
"We're looking into straw bale construction, it seems to have a lot of things going for it, as far as energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness and also when it gets to the construction phase, we'll have some community involvement."
"We'll have a log-peeling bee at the end of May or the early part of June and we are lining up some machinery and person power to begin construction," she said.
Paulette has been meeting with private and corporate sponsors who are eager to help see the project through.
Paulette is now teamed with Gisela Becker, a midwife from Germany, who has worked in Rankin Inlet, Quebec and the Cayman Islands.
"She loves the North and she wanted to return because she's more interested in community midwifery than hospital-based midwifery," Paulette said. "She's a very experienced midwife, she's also a neo-natal resuscitation instructor."
They will be working under Alberta legislation. Patients cannot be billed under NWT health care, but the pair are hoping for private and eventually government funding.
"We won't be charging anyone, but hopefully funding will be coming from somewhere, so that we get paid something for doing this," she said. "We are discussing partnerships with the health board and the department of health."
"We want to be able to access continuity in maternity care and we've suggested some kind of contribution agreement with the health board and department of health."
NWT barriers 'administrative'
Minister of Health and Social Services Jane Groenewegen said her department has been in communication with Paulette and hopes that a solution can be found.
"Some of the senior officials in my department have been out there to visit and they had a look at what she was proposing," she said.
Groenewegen thinks the barrier to midwifery is administrative.
"If you didn't have the back-up support in Fort Smith, of people who are willing to work with a licensed midwife like Lesley, then that would pose a problem."
"I don't think it's insurmountable and I can't speak for the health board either, but I think it's going to take some co-operation."
Since the two midwives are licensed and practising in Alberta, they were able to purchase individual professional liability insurance.
"That takes care of that big problem that keeps rearing its ugly head in the Northwest Territories -- that we can't get insurance as practitioners, because we aren't recognized here," Paulette said. The insurance premium was hiked this year from $4,000 to $15,000, but the Alberta government has offered to pay the difference in this year's premium and is also looking at funding midwifery as a health service.
Paulette said the Alberta Association of Midwives met recently with the government to seek funding for the service under regular health benefits.
Freedom of Association
Along with the ground breaking new building, the midwives have also started the first association of midwives in the North.
"We just formed this association this spring and our membership is only four members now -- two in Rankin Inlet and two in Fort Smith, but we'll be recruiting more," she said.
The association now gives representation to the North on the Canadian Association of Midwives.
Membership with Nik'e Niya is open to anyone who wants to support the philosophies and goals of the birthing centre.
For membership information contact Paullete at (867) 872-5516 or for information on midwifery in Canada, see the web site at www.widwives.org.
