INUVIK
A new prenatal program is set for delivery at the Inuvik Regional Hospital in June.

Judy Symes, a registered nurse at the Inuvik Regional Hospital, left, checks out a "baby bed" with Arlene Jorgensen, chief executive officer of the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority on March 26. The hospital is introducing a new prenatal care program under the auspices of the GNWT early childhood care and midwifery initiatives. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

It's part of the GNWT's initiatives to improve early child care and introduce a new midwifery program.

Arlene Jorgensen, the chief executive officer of the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority (BDHSSA), said due to Inuvik's complement of doctors and an award-winning obstetrical unit, midwives will not be working here. Instead, it will use some of the funding provided by the GNWT for the midwife program to improve resources for prenatal care in Inuvik.

The midwife program, Jorgensen said, rose out of the GNWT's early childhood care program.

"Technically it's not a midwife program," Jorgensen said. "We need to not call it a midwife program. We need to call it a prenatal program. We're not doing the full scope of service that a midwife would do. The piece that we're not going to do here is have a midwife being the person who actually delivers the baby.

"Part of that is because we have six permanent physicians, and we have a new one coming in April, and she also delivers babies. We have an award-winning obstetrics program already, and for our doctors to maintain the level of skill that we require, they need to be delivering babies."

It's a different scenario than in some of the other regions around the NWT, Jorgensen said.

Fort Smith and Hay River, for example, don't have a similar number of doctors on staff, and have more need for the extra resources offered by a practising midwife.

"The gap in service we have isn't in delivering babies," she said. "The gap in service we have is a need for someone to do prenatal care in Inuvik and in the communities."

Under the plan being implemented now by BDHSSA, a nurse-practitioner would provide those services, as well as coaching for other staff members, predominantly nurses.

The Inuvik hospital averages approximately 125 births a year, and that means it would be impossible for one person to attend them all, Jorgensen said, but the nurse-practitioner would attend some.

That will be a new position for the hospital, which already employs two nurse-practitioners.

A third position is currently vacant.

"We're hoping to have this program open by June," Jorgensen said. "Up until recently, we were still negotiating with the government over the program. We received out final approval quite recently, within the last two weeks, that we've gotten the go-ahead. It's very exciting for us."

Health Minister Glen Abernethy said in a telephone interview there's currently three permanent midwives in the NWT at the moment, all in Hay River and Fort Smith. A fourth position is vacant.

The Beaufort-Delta was the second region targeted for the midwife program, he said, but was modified to the current model after consultations with health professionals here.

"The great thing is that the Beaufort-Delta model will provide some awesome, immediate supports for maternity services that may help set the stage for future midwifery services and expansion of staff and resources," Abernethy said. "We're pretty excited. It's a collaborative project, and it builds upon the wonderful work being done in the Beaufort-Delta."

The budget for the region was originally more than $900,000, but that's been reduced to "a couple of hundred thousand" with the reduction in staffing positions to one from four.

"This program is going to give parents the tools they need to give their children the best start in life," Abernethy said.

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