Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to just follow up on my colleague’s questions just after the Minister of Health and Social Services. I would like to thank the Minister for her previous responses as well. To be sustainable, any Midwifery Program needs to have at least two midwives, otherwise the workload would be just too over-consuming. In order to determine the capacity in a business case, whether or not a Midwifery Program is feasible in a community, we need to understand the number of births or the number of pregnancies in a community. Has the department begun the process or have we in the past collected statistics on the number of pregnancies by community through the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we have data on birthing by communities. I will undertake to get that information for the Member. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that information is incredibly important in building a business case. I look forward to seeing the information.
I am curious if the Minister can confirm for us whether or not that data is being utilized to help determine what is a reasonable number of births to justify a midwifery service in a community. If she does, can she tell me how many pregnancies in a community justify the business case scenario for midwives in a community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Member is making correlation of analysis on this data. I am not sure if it is a connection that experts who look at these things make, but I would be happy... I have no problem looking at what the Member is suggesting.
I could tell you that in Fort Smith, since we have had a Midwifery Program, there have been 200 births and about 54 percent of those births have been attended to by the midwives. Within the Territories, Fort Smith has the most comprehensive complement of midwives and even then we have about only 50 percent, or a little less than 50 percent births still happen at Stanton. Midwifery model is designed in a way that works and it has to work with the medical model. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in 2005-06, when I sat on the Midwifery Implementation Committee for the Northwest Territories, they were talking about Fort Smith. What they determined -- and I would like the Minister to confirm these numbers for me -- but what I think they determined in order to justify a midwife in a community, they needed to have a community that had X number of pregnancies per year. I believe that number was about 45 or 50 pregnancies a year to justify midwifery services in a community. Can the Minister confirm that number for me and let me know whether that is the type of number that we are using to help determine a business case for midwifery services for other communities in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that is going back awhile. I need to look at that, but I am not sure if the business plan that we are working on midwifery is looking at this issue in that way.
As I stated earlier to MLA Bromley, I think what I would like to see is to have midwifery services available especially for women in communities without the full complement of medical and health services that are available in Yellowknife. It is looking at less medical model, medical-based model, which is what we seem to be practicing in both Yellowknife and Smith, but using a more traditional midwifery model that could be made available in communities which would not be based on the formula that the Member is suggesting. This is something that I just need to make sure that everybody knows we are looking at the option of a territorial-wide model. We need to do a lot of work. Our timeline is 2011-12. We need to make the case for resources. As the Minister of Health and Social Services, I would love to see midwifery programs expanding, with the focus on small communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think ultimately we both want the same things. I agree with what the Minister is saying. We need to have services available for people in communities because midwifery does not only provide birthing services, they also provide pre- and postnatal care. What I am concerned about is maximizing dollars. If we have a community that only has three or four pregnancies a year, it does not justify midwifery services. I want the Minister to provide me with some of the data on what justifies, what level of pregnancies justifies a business case which does involve money and it would be territorial money. What number justifies a business case for actually putting midwifery services which includes two midwives in certain communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as we are all aware, we have 31 communities in the Northwest Territories. I think the communities like Inuvik or Fort Simpson, Hay River, Norman Wells, are good candidates for having midwifery services where mothers could be supported from surrounding communities. Obviously I don’t think we could do it in the smallest of communities where there might be two or three births. I believe originally the Midwifery Program was targeted for Hay River. The community chose not to take that on and that position started in Yellowknife.
So this is an important issue and it needs a comprehensive look. It’s a direction that we have to take for the future, but we are engaged in looking at a full-scope analysis. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
