What does YFFM do?

Since the government has agreed to start looking at regulating midwifery services in the Yukon, we haven't been doing much actual "lobbying". We're really more of an advocacy group or planning group now, which is great because it means that we have made progress since the group was started in December!

At our last group meeting, we decided that besides taking part in the process of regulation and providing the consumer point of view in that process, our other role should be public education. There are all sorts of misconceptions out there on what midwifery is. That's not really surprising, of course, because who really thinks about midwifery until they're planning to have a family?

A lot of my friends in Ontario (where I lived before moving north) are a few years older than me and they started have kids before I did. One friend used a doula for her two births, and I had no idea that a doula and a midwife aren't the same thing! (For the record, a midwife is a health professional who can provide primary care throughout pregnancy, birth, and post-partum. A doula generally provides support and care during labour and delivery, although some also do post-partum support. However, women who use a doula also generally use a doctor or midwife for their primary care.)

One common misconception when it comes to midwives is that having a midwife automatically means having a home birth. While that can be a great choice for some women, not everyone is necessarily comfortable with that. In many jurisdictions, a woman can choose to give birth in a hospital, but have a midwife as her birth attendant.

To support our public education goal, we are going to be putting up posters around town to help people learn what a midwife does. Look for them on a bulletin board near you!