Expecting her first child, April Slater now has many decisions to make, including a name.
“Patience for a girl. For a boy, I don't know. Dad can name him," said Slater.
But having a midwife to help her through her pregnancy in a holistic way is not a choice she'll be able to make.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority told her there aren't enough midwives for every pregnant woman in Manitoba who wants one.
"Now I'm sort of faced with having someone walk me through the pregnancy and then having someone sort of catch the baby at the end," Slater said.
Right now there are 54 midwives in Manitoba. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, this province has more midwives than any other province in the country. And since 2006, Manitoba says it has spent $6.3 million so far in training midwives.
Melissa Brown is one of eight graduates since 2006 from the University College of the North program.
She said having more midwives is crucial in providing holistic care.
Brown knows. She had a midwife help her through one of her pregnancies.
"She was a really positive role model for me and it was really amazing to me that there was (a) healthcare provider that was able to incorporate my traditional beliefs into my healthcare so that had a really big impact on me," said Brown.
The province agrees and hopes the UCN program being merged with a University of Manitoba course will produce more graduates.
To do that, the UCN program has been suspended and a new bachelor of midwifery program is set to begin in September 2015.
Women who applied to UCN but were not accepted will be contacted when the new program starts up.
WRHA said 313 babies have been born at the Winnipeg Birth Centre and there have been 8,200 midwifery appointments since it opened.
