May 12, 2006
Arctic College set
to deliver
made-in-Nunavut midwives
Two students the first
of dozens to deliver babies closer to home
SARA
MINOGUE
Rachel Jones and Diane
Tiktak are to become the first "made-in-Nunavut" midwives.
They are the first students
to enter the midwifery training program launched last fall at Nunavut Arctic
College in Rankin Inlet.
By June, they'll be certified
maternity care workers, able to work with new moms and babies and teaching the
public about maternal health care.
Next fall, they go back
to school to complete year two of the midwifery diploma program, where they'll
be supervised by a certified midwife, and will be certified themselves by the
end of the year. Then they have just one more year to go, working as interns
before they are able to start working on their own.
The goal is to bring birthing
back to the communities - and ultimately help end, or reduce, the practice of
sending women south to deliver babies.
"I was never much
for women leaving their home towns to go and have their babies, because I've
always looked at having babies as a very normal process, not an illness,"
says Nowyah Williams, who has been working towards midwifery in Nunavut for
the past 13 years.
Williams was hired as a
maternity care worker at the Rankin Inlet birthing centre when it opened in
1993.
"I had dreams to become
a certified midwife," she said. But because it took so long to get training,
she eventually moved on to the government department that got the job done,
and is now the Government of Nunavut's coordinator for regional maternal/newborn
health services.
Explaining why she became
interested in midwifery, she said, "My children were born in southern hospitals.
When I had my baby for the first time, I never had any sort of education regarding
labour and delivery, and so when I had my baby at the hospital, it was a shocking
experience for me, because nobody ever talked to me about having a baby. But
with the midwives, there's an awful lot of education."
Six more students are to
enter the program this fall - three from Rankin Inlet and, ideally, three from
Arviat.
Arviat has one of the highest
birth rates in Nunavut, which is why it was selected to receive a new birthing
centre, where the three midwives will eventually return, Williams said.
"Hopefully we can
keep setting up birthing centers across Nunavut."
That fits with Nunavut's
commitment, made by Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq in the legislature last November,
to have more than two dozen people qualified to work in maternity care and midwifery
by June 2008.
Williams has already seen
the impact of the birthing centre on Rankin Inlet, where half of the babies
delivered in 2000 were from surrounding communities. Before the opening of the
centre, these mothers would have been sent south.
"People were very
impressed with having a baby in Nunavut - so much closer to home. Especially
people from Whale Cove and Chesterfield Inlet who were able to bring their own
family members who were so close by," Williams said.
"It becomes a very
exciting event when you can bring your husband along. After all, they're having
a baby too, it's just the woman who happens to be doing the delivery."
Family units are stronger
if the father is involved with the birth right from the beginning, Williams
said.
"The bonding takes
place right away. Even the little ones get so excited about having a new arrival
that I can really witness the family growing stronger together."
Two consultants have been
hired to develop the course curriculum in Rankin Inlet, and to work on new policies
for the resulting midwives.
Elders also contributed,
through two meetings held in Rankin Inlet, which addressed the cultural components
of delivering babies. That material will be included in the Inuktitut curriculum
that is now being developed, and should be ready this fall.
Some of that curriculum
could eventually be included in the aboriginal midwifery education program developed
by the University College of the North, based in Manitoba.
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