For pregnant people in Western Manitoba, giving birth at home won’t be an option for the next six months, as Prairie Mountain Health has paused birth and on-call services for midwives from April 1st to September 30th.

Midwives will still provide care before and after a baby is born, but the birth itself will be handled by doctors and nurses at hospitals in Brandon, Dauphin and Neepawa. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara promised on Tuesday that women would still be taken care of.

“This is a temporary change in the service,” said Asagwara. “That being said, the plan that’s in place is very comprehensive to make sure that women and families who need this care are able to receive it in a very comprehensive way.”

Sarah Davis, vice-president of the Midwives Association of Manitoba, says the pause will still be devastating for patients, who hope to have someone they know and trust to help them while giving birth.

“The relationship that develops between a care provider and the person receiving services makes all the difference in their experience and their outcomes,” says Davis.

The pause is down to an unforeseen staffing shortage, Prairie Mountain Health said in a statement.

Davis says the midwifery centre in Brandon should have seven full-time positions, but will be down to three or fewer this summer. That leaves significant gaps in the amount of care they can provide, especially because two midwives are required for births outside the hospital.

She adds the province as a whole has fewer than 60 midwife positions, in part because there was no way to get trained in the province for several years.

“Our education program is relatively new and we’ve had many people from Manitoba leave the province, obtain education, and then just settle where they did their training,” says Davis.

Asagwara blamed the previous PC government for cutting the previous bachelor program at the University of Manitoba in 2016, while health critic Kathleen Cook said her party established the new program in 2021. Cook said the fact that the pause is temporary will offer no comfort to pregnant women.

“You can’t delay your delivery date until the temporary problem is behind us,” says Cook. “It forces those women into an entirely different model of care than they were expecting.”

The provincial budget tabled last week includes $1.1 million to create new midwifery positions across Manitoba, including in Prairie Mountain Health.