EDMONTON — A rally has been staged at the Alberta legislature in support of midwives.
About 200 men, women and children gathered Wednesday afternoon to call for more funding for the service.
Dana Weatherhead of the Association for Safe Alternatives in Childbirth says the existing funding is not enough to provide services for the 1,800 women who are currently waitlisted.
Morgan Reid, who was able to have a natural water birth at a centre in Edmonton, says she applied for a midwive the day she found out she was pregnant because she was worried about not being able to get one.
Kendra Ruhl-Larocque of Whitecourt, Alta., says there are no midwifery services in her northern Alberta community so she drove to Edmonton to give birth.
She says although she's happy she was able to give birth naturally, she would have been more comfortable doing it in her own community.
Weatherhead says women under midwifery care want to give birth at home, so if more babies are born at home, that would mean less funding would be needed for hospital costs.
