Please help raise awareness of the need this city has for LOCAL midwives - our own Midwife group. If you have had a midwife and live in Woodstock and all surrounding areas, please join and show your support. Share your experience and let others know about their options! If you wanted a midwife but were unable to get one, we need your support too! Our city is in desperate need of better birth options! Women in our city are in need of OPTIONS when it comes to care providers, better prenatal care and better birth experiences. Women in our area, who are fortunate to get a midwife, must still travel 15-60 minutes out of town for appointments and many, to deliver. There are currently approx 5,000 women on waiting lists for Midwives in Ontario - 40% will not get the care they so desperately want and need. Every year, 500 women are turned away from Midwifery practices in neighboring communities...and many more have no idea that Midwifery is an option. Women in our city who do not have a family Dr, or whose family Dr. does not deliver babies, must look to an OB for locally accessible prenatal care. I have met many mothers whose normal, healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy ended in an abnormal, unhealthy, complicated birth - due largely to their care provider and lack of information. Midwives take the time that most care providers cannot take, to answer questions, explain procedures, risks and benefits. Midwives provide not only medical care, but physical and emotional care...being available to women when and how they need them. Women need to be loved, supported, listened to, and cared for properly - pregnancy is not a disease that needs to be cured. Midwifery makes sense when it comes to reducing hospital costs, lowering c-section rates, reducing interventions, and giving women a say in their care. Woodstock needs better birth options. Since the creation of this group, we have begun to look deeper into what it would take to bring a midwifery practice or satellite clinic to our community. Every step along the way is important - and this online community plays an important role. Your support means so much! I hope that this group gives women in our community a voice that they may not have otherwise had. I welcome help - if you have an idea or suggestion - or you know a Midwife who would be interested in speaking to me further about our plans, please contact me!
