MEDIA RELEASE
Crown Point Registered Midwives expand services
for women, from teenage years to menopause
Registered midwives at the Crown Point Family Health Centre in Hamilton’s east end are now offering a wide selection of healthcare services for women, from teenage years to middle age.
Midwives care for women and their babies during pregnancy, labour, birth and the postpartum period. The four midwives at Crown Point Family Health Centre also offer well-baby care, breastfeeding support and group sessions for prenatal nutrition as well as an IUD clinic for women needing birth control, mental health support for post partum depression and menopause information for middle-aged women. Services are aimed at women from high-needs Hamilton neighbourhoods and are available in English, French and Arabic.
“We are especially excited about the new IUD clinic -- the first of its kind in the province,” said Kate Demers, a Crown Point midwife along with Mona Abdel-Fattah, Elisabeth Boulanger and Christine Sandor. The four are associates with Community Midwives of Hamilton.
Young women, and women who have never given birth, are often referred to a physician specialist for IUD insertion but the wait times in Hamilton can be 10 to 11 months. Long wait times for birth control can lead to unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. By comparison, the wait time at the Crown Point IUD clinic is about two weeks. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada and The Canadian Pediatric Society recommend IUD as the first-line contraceptive for all women, including young women and those who have not given birth. The Crown Point clinic offers IUD insertion to women, regardless of whether they have been pregnant, by either self-referral or referral from their healthcare provider.
Barrier-free access to healthcare can have a significant impact on the quality of life in a community, said Demers. Since September 2018, the registered midwives at the Crown Point
Family Health Centre have offered care to families in Hamilton through the Crown Point Expanded Midwifery Care Model (EMCM) project. The project has a particular focus on improving access for people in Hamilton’s north-east neighbourhoods, wards 3 and 4. Ensuring delivery of accessible and inclusive innovative primary care, particularly to the high-priority neighborhoods and vulnerable populations in the area has been an aim of the midwives and their physician colleagues.
“We are so pleased to welcome midwives into our multi disciplinary team,” said Dr. Meghan Davis, Crown Point Family Health Centre’s family physician lead for this project. “It really is an innovative partnership model for improved health care delivery. As part of the Hamilton Family Health Team, our motto is 'Better Care Together' and the midwives enable this in so many ways by offering more services and reducing barriers.”
The midwives’ services are available to all women in the community -- not just to clinic patients. Clients do not need to be referred by a physician to access midwifery services.
The initial project proposal was spearheaded by Liz Darling, Director of the Midwifery Education at McMaster, and her predecessor Eileen Hutton, and supported by local midwives, physicians at The Crown Point Family Health Centre, The Shelter Health Network, obstetricians and gynecologists at McMaster Hospital and University, as well as a number of other local health care professionals. The City of Hamilton city counsellors and MPs and a multitude of local social organizations also supported the project.
The midwives collaborate with multiple other health care professionals, including the family doctors and a dietician at Crown Point Family Health Centre, obstetricians, pharmacists and local ultrasound services.
“We believe all this couldn’t have been possible without community engagement and the interprofessional nature of the project,” said Demers. “When everyone is equally driven to make a project a success, it opens up new possibilities. We are excited about by the increasing scope of this project.”
For more information, please contact:
Kate Demers or Mona Abdel-Fattah, 905-547-2302