Alberta strategy aims to fill gaps in midwifery care amid provincewide shortage

February 13, 2025 Canuck

Last year, as soon as she learned she was expecting her first child, Emily Froese applied for midwifery care. She was three weeks pregnant at the time.

She didn’t hear back from a midwife until she was seven months pregnant.

“I wanted a really natural birth that was really small and intimate and I knew with an obstetrician I probably wouldn’t get that,” said Froese, who lives in Sturgeon County.

“Before I heard back [from a midwife], I was getting really really nervous and kind of disheartened and scared for giving birth.”

Froese’s story is similar to those told by many other expectant and new parents across the province.

An ongoing midwife shortage in Alberta means expectant parents are not guaranteed to be matched with a midwife prior to giving birth.

According to the Alberta Association of Midwives, the growing waitlist is due to the province not having enough providers to keep up with patient demand.

“It is really quite heart-wrenching,” Marita Obst, president of the Alberta Association of Midwives, said in an interview with CBC.

“Sometimes there’s 40 or 50 people a month who we can’t accommodate who are reaching out.

“They send us their stories and it would be really nice to be able to take everyone in but unfortunately we just don’t have the numbers.”

WATCH | It can be hard to find a midwife in this province:

Why is it so difficult to get a midwife in Alberta?

3 days ago

Duration 2:44

Thousands of expectant mothers are joining a growing waitlist for midwifery care in Alberta. Midwives say there are not enough of them in the province to keep up with the demand for their services and they are worried that changes in other provinces means they could lose more of their workforce in the future.

Midwifery is a publicly funded service in Alberta.

The provincial government is spending $10 million between 2024 and 2027 to advance its midwifery strategy, with the goal of attracting more practitioners and improving access to midwifery care.

The strategy has short, medium and long-term goals, the province said in a news release this week.

In the short term, it will focus on enhancing care for Indigenous populations through community engagement.

It will then work to address attrition in the field and identify supports needed to sustain the workforce.

Lastly, the province will look to formalize guidelines, processes and integrate midwifery practice into team-based primary care.

The Alberta Association of Midwives has reported that rural and Indigenous communities are struggling with access to midwives and obstetric care.

The province said it will use some of the funding to pilot projects within Indigenous communities to help attract and retain internationally educated midwives.

Ideally, a midwife in every community

Alberta currently has about 180 registered midwives, up more than 25 per cent from 2020, according to the province.

Obst said the number would have to be growing 20 per cent annually in order to meet demand.

The association said 4,500 Albertans are currently under the care of midwives and another 3,400 are on a waitlist.

Obst noted the waitlist number includes women who want midwifery care but live in communities where it is not available.

“In an ideal world, there’s a midwife in every community, every rural, remote, and Indigenous community,” she said.

“We have a huge unmet need for obstetrics care in Alberta and midwives are perfectly suited to meet that demand.”

The association said the shortage is partly due to Alberta’s delay in publicly funding midwifery, and that midwives in this province are under-compensated compared to their counterparts in Ontario and British Columbia.

Updated legislation and funding are factors that would help grow and retain the workforce in Alberta, Obst said.

‘She really worked to get to know me’

With the help of a midwife, Emily Froese gave birth to her healthy, happy daughter Maeve about five months ago.

Froese said she’s thankful she was matched with a midwife, even if it was in her third trimester.

“My obstetrician was lovely, but my appointments were about 10 minutes and I was in and out pretty quickly,” she said of her care up until 30 weeks.

Her advice to other expectant moms is to apply early and be prepared to switch providers.

“When I switched to the midwife my appointment was almost 40 minutes, and she really worked to get to know me.”

“I was so excited. I told all my mom friends, ‘You should get a midwife.’

“I think everyone should have a midwife.”

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