Gaspé gets its first midwife

People in Gaspé can now give birth with the assistance of a midwife at the Hôtel-Dieu de Gaspé hospital.

Last May, the regional health authority, the CISSS de la Gaspésie, hired its first midwife, Alexandra Ross Rioux.

Ross Rioux, who practised midwifery in Montreal for two years before being hired in her hometown, is now following her first patients.

"It's an added asset for the obstetrics department," Ross Rioux told Radio-Canada. "The midwife lends a hand where it's most needed."

So far she has six patients, and there are other families she started to see through joint followups with nurses and doctors who are part of the social perinatal team.

The Gaspé community has been waiting for this service for over a decade, according to the Accès sage-femme Côte-de-Gaspé collective, which advocates for access to midwives.

Midwives follow patients throughout their pregnancy as well as during and after the birth. It's a personalized and community-based health care service that was sorely needed, said Nastassia Williams, a spokesperson for Accès sage-femme Côte-de-Gaspé.

"We sometimes have less services than people in the cities so it's been a great win to access this service. We are very, very happy to welcome her in our community," said Williams.

Williams herself would travel about 300 kilometres to Baie-des-Chaleurs for midwife services during her second pregnancy. But, not everyone can travel outside their community for followups or to give birth.

"I think lots of people here want to have the option of where they can give birth, in Gaspé or other rural communities," said Williams.

"It's a wonderful service and everyone should have the opportunity to have a midwife assist them in their pregnancy."

She said hospitals in the area sometimes have a lack of continuity of care services as they can lack nurses or obstetricians.

Since mid-June, the obstetrics service in Gaspé has suffered seven service interruptions. The CISSS has also had to close the hospital's obstetrics department every other week throughout the summer due to staff shortages.

But the CISSS hopes that the hiring of a midwife will help prevent future service disruptions.

Full team needed

Though the community is happy to welcome its first midwife, Ross Rioux can't do everything alone.

When Ross Rioux isn't working, families will turn to the hospital's medical team, said Connie Jacques, the CISSS's chief of operations.

For now, at-home birth services are not available as two midwives are needed to deliver a baby. Births will have to take place at the hospital with the help of nurses until more midwives are hired. 

There is also hope for the community to get a birthing centre outside the hospital where families can be assisted by midwives and doulas.

According to Williams, between three and five midwives are needed to offer full services to the community. Jacques said the CISSS has already submitted its applications to the Health Ministry to hire another midwife and has plans to expand the services.

But, because midwifery is a relatively young profession, there aren't enough midwives to cover all of Quebec, said Jacques. 

She said she's heard good feedback from the community on the hospital's interdisciplinary approach of pairing midwives with doctors and nurses.

"It's not a fast train but it's certainly a very exciting one," said Jacques.

"It's very exciting to see a project like this actually actualized, to be able to say that we have at least two territories of our four that midwife services are available in the community."