Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 10, 2007

NUNAVUT - A simple "medical gadget" is providing moms-to-be and health care workers in remote communities some added peace of mind, while saving the territory thousands of dollars in medevac costs, according to Dr. Sandy MacDonald, director of medical affairs for Nunavut.

Audrey Saxton, head laboratory technician at Baffin regional hospital, demonstrates the fetal fibronectin test, which can diagnose false labour. - Karen Mackenzie/NNSL photo

The fetal fibronectin test, which can determine whether a pregnant patient is in actual or false labour, was tested in five communities between 2004 and 2006.

The test works by determining whether fetal fibronectin, a protein which only shows up in the womb when a woman goes into labour, is present.

If the test is negative, the likelihood she will give birth in the next seven days is almost zero, and she may remain in her community rather than making an emergency trip to Iqaluit or Ottawa hospitals.

"It gives her time to organize her things and get ready to go down south at the right time," MacDonald said.

After determining during the two-year trial that the equipment may have saved more than $400,000 in travel costs for false labour cases over two years, the Department of Health and Social Services opted to distribute kits to 21 communities across Nunavut.

Grise Fiord and Resolute will be receiving the final kits shortly, MacDonald said.

Nunavut has a higher number of women going into early labour, at 20 per cent versus the national average of about seven per cent, according to MacDonald.

That fact, coupled with the dangers of having a premature baby outside of a hospital, means Nunavut health care workers usually opt to send their patients out by medevac at the slightest risk.

While it doesn't replace the nurses' clinical judgement, "it's one more tool they can use to make the decision," MacDonald said.

"You sleep better at night," said Flo Wood, nurse supervisor in Pond Inlet. "I'm really pleased with it. I think because we are so far from any hospital, it's really quite a godsend."

More importantly, the test also prevents unnecessary travel for the mother-to-be, she said.

"When they're medevaced out at the last minute, it causes upheaval in the homes, not just the mom uprooted, but there are sometimes young children who caregivers must be found for," Wood told Nunavut News/North.

"And sometimes the husband could be out on the land ... it really causes stress to the whole family."