Women looking for alternatives to a traditional hospital birth are out of luck in New Brunswick—at least for now.
Provincial NDP leader Dominic Cardy tells CHSJ News cutting funding to the Midwifery Association of New Brunswick is a backward move which fundamentally infringes on a woman’s right to give birth where she chooses.
According to Cardy, the $10,000 the association needs to function is about equal to the cost of a single ministerial car–and the potential savings associated with midwifery are significant in light of the province’s struggling healthcare system.
Using a midwife is $800 cheaper per hospital birth and $1800 cheaper per home birth according to the Ontario Department of Health. Cardy says with doctors in the province already overtaxed it makes no sense to cut a program we already promised to implement back in 2010.
