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Canadian Ob/Gyns call for A National Birthing Strategy for Canada: HR crunch causing maternity care shortages

Ottawa — The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) appeared today before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance’s pre-budget consultations to call on the Federal Government to invest in measures that will ensure that mothers and babies in Canada – and around the world – receive the health care services they need during pregnancy and child birth.

Canada is facing a crisis in obstetrical care. Fewer family physicians are delivering babies, and in the next five years, nearly one in three Canadian obstetricians will retire from full-time practice.¹ In 1990, Canada was one of the world’s safest place to give birth, ranking 6^th for infant mortality and 2^nd for maternal mortality.² In 2006, Canada has slid to 21^st for infant mortality and 11^th for maternal mortality.³ In particular, women giving birth in rural or remote areas are increasingly at risk.

“What’s important to remember is that these rankings are not just ‘statistics’. We are talking about the lives of Canadian women and children,” said SOGC President Dr. Donald Davis, speaking before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. “There is a serious lack of services especially within rural and remote communities to care for women during childbirth. Smaller community hospitals have been closed for economic reasons, and local options have not replaced them. We can fix this, but it requires political will and leadership.”

The SOGC is recommending A Birthing Strategy for Canada as a multi-faceted way to address obstetrical care shortages, implementing collaborative care models for pre- and post-natal care, and to look at ways of providing optimal care in urban, remote, rural and aboriginal communities.

The SOGC also strongly urged the Government to increase Canada’s Official Development Assistance to help reduce the number of women and babies who die needlessly during childbirth worldwide.

Each year 530,000 women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth -- most often from well-known and easily treatable complications, in fact, the kind of complications that are routinely and successfully addressed here in Canada during the course of childbirth.⁴ 95% of these maternal deaths occur in low resource countries.⁵

“Women do not die because of a lack of knowledge about how to treat their complications, they die because there is a lack of political will to save them,” said Dr Davis.

For copies of Dr. Davis’s text, the SOGC’s detailed brief to the Standing Committee, and a copy of A Birthing Strategy for Canada, please contact the SOGC.

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Contact:

Mike Haymes,
Coordinator, Communications and Public Education
Tel : (800) 561-2416 or (613) 730-4192 extension: 325
Fax: (613) 730-4314
E-mail address: mhaymes@sogc.com Website: www.sogc.org

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About The SOGC:

The SOGC is one of Canada’s oldest national specialty organizations. Established in 1944, the Society’s mission is to promote excellence in the practice of obstetrics and gynaecology and to advance the health of women through leadership, advocacy, collaboration, outreach and education. The SOGC represents obstetricians/gynaecologists, family physicians, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals in the field of sexual reproductive health.

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References:

1Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC). Patterns of Practice Membership Survey, 1999.

2 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Health Data 2006: Statistics and Indicators for 30 Countries, June 2006 www.oecd.org

3 Ibid.

4 World Health Organization, UNICEF and UNFPA, Maternal Mortality in 2000: Estimates developed by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA (Geneva: WHO, 2003)

5Ibid.