Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Oct 02/00) - A tangle of restrictions and regulations is blocking midwifery from be practised at the health centre here.

Chief Executive Officer for the Fort Smith Health and Social Services Board, Brent Woodford said there is a combination of insurance and legislative reasons why the board cannot offer the service at the Fort Smith health centre.

"The board has not said, 'We are not going to support midwifery,' or anything like that," Woodford said.

He said the board's insurer told them that if anything goes wrong during childbirth, the centre would be open to lawsuit and the average claim is $10 million.

"They are very concerned that every back-up, every support be available and because we are a small hospital, we don't have that support," he said. "Things like a surgery if someone needs a (Caesarean) section, or something like that."

He said the doctors' insurers have the same concerns over liability.

"They are saying that if midwifery was legislated or controlled up here or controlled by legislation it would give them a higher level of confidence."

While the physician or midwife can tell if something goes wrong, Woodford said, time is critical.

"There is only seven minutes to react until there is permanent harm caused to either the mother or the baby," Woodford said. "It's a 45 minute flight from Yellowknife to Fort Smith and another 45 minutes back, so that's an hour-and-a-half just in the air."

Although the board has legislative and legal concerns, Woodford agrees midwifery would add to health care in the North.

"We're certainly interested, but there's just a number of roadblocks that are slowing it down," he said.

Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger, said he campaigned on bringing childbirth back to Fort Smith and has supported Paulette by writing letters and talking to cabinet.

"It's a tremendous boost to the sense of community, it's not as stressful or expensive for the parents," said Miltenberger.

"If we lose that obstetrician in Yellowknife, we have no back-up, so this is a very touchy situation we're in here," he said.

Calls to the Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services were not returned.