Progress and challenges for reproductive health in Canada

Depending on where you live in Canada, the news this week for women’s reproductive health reports either progress or challenges.

Progress in Quebec:

In Quebec, CBC News reports that the province will begin full funding of in vitro fertilization treatments (IVF) for women, beginning this spring. Until now, Quebec was the only province to give a 50-per-cent tax credit for IVF treatments and will become the first province to provide full funding for IVF through provincial health insurance.

The Ontario provincial government is in the process of reviewing two reports that have recommended that OHIP cover IVF treatments as a way of saving money in long-term health costs. (Read the related excerpt from the report here.)

Challenges in Alberta:

CBC News also reported this week that a shortage of registered midwives is resulting in many women turning to unregistered “birth assistants” as an alternative to the conventional doctor/obstetrician course of care. Currently, Alberta has only 50 licensed midwives in practice (by contrast, there are 500 licensed midwives practicing in Ontario); as a result, only one in ten women seeking midwifery care in the province are able to receive it. Although women unable to obtain midwifery care would receive conventional care through the provincial medical system, many women prefer the type of care that midwives provide., and are going elsewhere to find it. However, seeking this type of care outside of licensed and regulated systems can pose a potential health threat for women who do so.

To address the problem, the province is working toward licensing additional midwives and introducing a Midwifery degree program at Mount Royal University in Calgary. (There are currently no midwifery education programs — a 4-year university degree — in Alberta.)

Midwifery  care is legal and regulated in many provinces and territories; it is not regulated in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon Territory, and Nunavut.