BORN AGM June 5th 2010
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010Please come to the BORN AGM see Events for more details.
Archive for the ‘BORN News’ Category
CBC News Story on Midwifery Implementation
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010Health Minister Commits to Midwifery Implementation Task Force
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010The BORN Co-operative has received a positive response from the Health Minister. Her Hon. Carolyn Bertram has confirmed that the Department of Health in PEI will set up a Midwifery Implimentation Task Force. Your comments on our Petition were a huge help. Read all the great comments on the copy of the Petition here. midwifery-and-doula-care-for-pei_052310
Meeting with Health Minister
Thursday, February 4th, 2010BORN is very excited to share the news that we have a new Health Minister,Carolyn Bertram. Her Honor has agreed to meet with BORN and talk about Midwifery for PEI. Please take the time to use our online petition on this web site to congratulate her Honor on her new post and thank her for being open to a discussion about Midwifery and Doula Care for PEI.
BORN chair guest on new health show ‘Au Natural’
Friday, January 16th, 2009
Eastlink cable’s health show ‘Au Natural’ will be interviewing co-chair of BORN, Robyn Brehaut, on March 11th, Wednesday night at 8:30 and again on March 15th, Sunday at 7:30pm. The new show is hosted by naturopathic Dr. Kali Simmonds and her co-host Dr. Lana McMurrer. They cover a range of health topics from a naturopathic perspective. Next week’s topic is Pregnancy and Childbirth with a focus on midwifery, doula care, and BORN.
Make sure to tune in on Wednesday night!
BORN’s Concerns with QEH Renovation plans
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008Dear Mr. Rick Adams, QEH Executive Director and Ms. Marionn Clark, QEH Interim Director of Nursing:
While reading the most recent newsletter released by the QEH, we were discouraged to discover the new renovation plans for QEH have ignored the dire state of the labour/delivery and postpartum units. While we applaud the addition of one birthing suite for the unit and the recent policy changes to help keep mothers and babies together, we notice there are no further renovations planned for the maternity ward. Currently, the unit has the capacity to offer the birthing suite to only one third of the women who birth at the hospital. Research shows that healthy women and babies should not be in contact with the general hospital population to prevent the spread of disease. In moving toward raising the standard of care at the QEH we would like to know when the hospital plans to bring this unit up to standard.
A quote directly from the Family Centered Care Guidelines, which all health institutions across Canada are working towards, states, “Women should…be supported in a warm, comforting one-room environment, where they can labour, give birth, spend time with their babies and be cared for, together, without disruption of being moved from place to place, or being separated from their newborn.” Even though the QEH is moving in the right direction with their new rooming-in policy for mothers and babies, the facilities still do not provide the proper environment.
The Guidelines also state, “…caring for women is best done in the context of their families. Therefore, families should be comfortably accommodated in the environment and feel part of the process.” Currently, there is no family waiting room available in the labour and delivery unit, and new policies state that children under the age of 12 are not welcome in the unit at any time. The current space and policies in place are obviously not recognizing or honoring families as an integral part of the birth process for the women giving birth at QEH. This type of environment creates an undue amount of stress on a birthing mother when she needs to feel as comfortable and safe as possible in order to have the best possible outcome for mother and baby. Women have contacted our group and expressed that they are very concerned at the prospect of being separated from their older children while they are at the hospital.
For women having a Cesarean birth, the Guidelines recommend, “ …the operative/cesarean birth room and recovery area should be located within the maternal and newborn care area.” QEH protocol is to keep mothers after surgery in a General Recovery area with any number of patients from all areas within the hospital. This puts a woman in direct contact with other possibly sick patients and risks the health of mother and newborn. During this lengthy period of time, the mother is left alone with no support from family or caregivers, and is separated from her baby.
In the postpartum maternity ward, based on the National Guidelines, “ No other services should be provided in <the> area, nor should clients from other services be cared for in the maternal and newborn area.” Again, this is not the case at QEH. Women, who have had a variety of gynecological surgeries including hysterectomies and miscarriages, are placed in the maternity ward for their recovery. Not only can this be an emotional assault on women recovering from these types of surgeries, but it is also a health risk for mothers and newborns to again be exposed to possible sicknesses.
The current climate at the hospital has not resulted in improved rates of continued breast feeding either. As you are aware BORN Cooperative is committed to seeing that Midwives and Doulas become a part of the maternity care offered in PEI. We respectfully remind you that a healthy start in life is a good precursor to a healthy adult who in turn will need less expensive medical care in the future.
PEI families deserve up to date facilities that allow for Family Centered Care to be fully implemented and available to all. We continue to hear from women who choose to birth out of the province or in Summerside to avoid the antiquated facilities at the QEH. If we hope to bring young families to PEI and keep them here, we must offer contemporary care. In our meetings with the medical community we have heard the willingness to provide Family Centered Care. This is much more than bricks and mortar, however an out of date facility makes their job more difficult. We hope to hear a reason as to why expecting families are not being considered during the renovations on our hospital.
We have had very positive interaction with the current government in our discussions of improvements to maternity care in PEI. We also have been very encouraged by the nursing staff at both hospitals who have made it clear they embrace the movement toward family centered care through both public forums and private meetings. We hope to continue to work with the hospital and women’s organizatons across P.E.I to move to fully adapting Health Canada’s Guidelines.
Sincerely,
Robyn Brehaut
President of BORN Cooperative
A step forward for the QEH
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008BORN Co-operative congratulates the QEH on taking a step toward meeting Health Canada’s Family Centred Care Guidelines by rooming babies with mothers which promotes bonding, breast-feeding and health of new families. We look forward to the QEH fully meeting the Guidelines by creating single room maternity care for all women birthing at the hospital. We also encourage the province to provide the same level of care that is offered in the rest of Canada by offering women the choice of Midwife attended births on PEI.
BORN Cooperative Springs to Life!
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Celebrate with us April 19th. BORN Co-operative is celebrating its recent incorporation by hosting a family friendly evening on Saturday, April 19 starting at 5:30 PM. The evening will consist of a short meeting (AGM) and information session about BORN Co-operative’s continuing efforts to promote midwifery, doula care and family centred maternity on PEI. BORN, in cooperation with Women’s Network and with financial assistance from the Co-operative Secretariat CDI Research and Innovation funding, has just completed a project looking at the integration of midwives into the PEI Healthcare System and the establishment of a birthing centre on PEI. Michelle MacCallum, Executive Director of Women’s Network will be speaking about the project. We are also having a potluck dinner followed by acoustic music featuring The Creaky Chair Gang (Gary Torlone, Marcus Lutterman and Ian Forgeron). Please feel free to bring along an instrument and share a song.BORN Co-operative will be selling shares in the co-op during the evening with limited edition share certificates featuring artwork by Michelle MacCallum. The cost of one share is $50.00. Please come ready to purchase a share and invest in the future of a birthing centre co-operative on PEI.
The celebration is being held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church Hall on Richmond Street in Charlottetown on Saturday, April 19 and begins at 5:30 PM. Everyone is welcome. For further information, please contact Sandy Nicholson, 658-2798, doula[@]isn.net.
You may also confirm your attendance on our Facebook Event page.
