To view photo essay, click on any of the photos above.

About 200 people from across the province rallied in Halifax this afternoon, demanding access to midwifery services. The province’s current legislation limits the number of midwives that can legally practice in N.S, and confines midwives to three ‘model sites’ chosen by the province.

Model sites are located in the Halifax Regional Municipality, the South Shore, and in Antigonish-Guysborough. Other areas of the province, including the Annapolis Valley, have no access to legal midwifery services.

Furthermore, although 4 midwives  are mandated to operate in the HRM (2 full-time, 2 part-time), there are currently no midwives working at the IWK model site, leaving only 4 legally employed midwives in the entire province.

On the rally’s Facebook page, organizer Stephanie Kincade states that the “IWK has failed to successfully implement midwifery in Halifax.”One of the organizers’ key demands is that the midwifery program be moved out of the IWK and into the hands of the community, through partnering with a community-based health centre.

Also today, the province released an evaluation of their midwifery program. The report includes a series of recommendations concerning accountability, accessibility and sustainability, concluding that: “Moving the recommendations to action will be a shared responsibility of the many stakeholders impacted by the introduction of regulated midwives into the health care system including women and their families, midwives, community groups, other providers, District Health Authorities and the Nova Scotia Department of Health.”

With no practicing midwives in the HRM, nor in many other parts of the province, moving the recommendations to action has urgency – evident in the afternoon crowd of mothers, fathers, babies, kids, and supporters who spent a cold January afternoon blocking Granville Street with placards and strollers.  

For more photos click here.