Outcomes of primary maternity care in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories ...

• Main Author: Frame, Jean Caitlin
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2014
• Subjects: Fort Smith; Hay River; Northwest Territories
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0167421; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0167421

Introduction: In northern Canada women residing in rural communities without local access to maternity care must evacuate at 36-37 weeks gestation to await labour in a city with a regional hospital. Midwifery services are expanding to rural areas of Canada, yet there are few studies that evaluate the safety of rural and remote midwifery compared to routine evacuation for birth. The purpose of this study is to assess the safety of the Fort Smith Midwifery Program in the Northwest Territories, and to understand the experiences of, and the meaning of, community birth with midwives among the women of Fort Smith. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to compare birth outcomes from the Fort Smith Midwifery Program (n=281) to: 1) the Inuulitsivik Midwifery Program in northern Quebec (n=1388), and 2) the community of Hay River where women evacuate at 37 weeks to receive intrapartum care elsewhere (n=143). Maternal and newborn outcomes were compared among the three comparison groups using univariate and ...