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 Tide 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.