The provincial government's decision to fund midwives means better health care for everyone, but there is one more step we need to take

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A year after announcing intentions to regulate and fund midwives in the province's hospitals, provincial health minister Mike Murphy introduced legislation last month to make it possible. Beginning in 2009, the Department of health will hire eight midwives, and add four more each year until the needs of New Brunswick women are met.

Proponents of midwifery have been clamouring for this move for years, and rightly so. Midwives, who generally care for women with low-risk pregnancies before, during and after birth, offer women a different kind of birth experience.

In a survey done of women who had given birth in a certain three month period in 2007, 71% of women under the care of a midwife rated their labour and delivery experience as "very positive". In comparison only 53% of women cared for by other practitioners gave their experience that high rating.

But in New Brunswick, while midwifery was never technically legal, it was not publicly funded or regulated, wither. Which means that women who wished to use the services of a midwife faced added costs and the burden of researching their practitioner carefully. Not things we are used to in this country,

The benefits of including midwives in our health care system go beyond increased satisfaction for pregnant women and increased numbers of children who are breast-fed.

Adding this new option will also alleviate a portion of the heavy case load on many obstetricians and family doctors.

Ask any new or expecting parent about the amount of time spent in a waiting room during a pregnancy, and you'll soon find out why this is. A pregnant woman can expect to have between 10 and 15 prenatal visits, and that's with a low-risk, problem-free pregnancy.

So, every time a pregnant woman chooses to see a midwife for prenatal care, rather than her family doctor, it frees up time for other patients. Even for obstetricians, who deal only with pregnant women, having their low-risk cases transferred to a mid-wife means more time to see higher-risk patients.

The provincial government is to be applauded for finally taking this step to improve health care. The next one is to ensure that there will be competent, qualified people to fill these new positions. In other provinces where midwifery is publicly funded, the shortage of qualified midwives is quickly becoming a crisis.

The current legislation requires that midwives hold a Bachelor's degree in Midwifery, a four-year university program currently offered in just six locations in Canada. None of them are east of Quebec.

If we want to encourage quality prenatal care by qualified midwives, we need to think ahead, and plan to provide the training grounds for them, right here in New Brunswick.