More Alberta towns lose obstetrics services

The Stelmach administration is “abandoning expecting mothers” by cutting back obstetrics services in Alberta, according to David Swann, Leader of the Official Opposition.

Brooks, a town southeast of Calgary, is the second rural community to lose its obstetrics services this month, after Banff. Jasper’s obstetrics services were moved to Hinton in 2004.

“Like their counterparts in Banff, expecting mothers in Brooks are now being told that they will have to have their babies delivered in Medicine Hat, Calgary or Lethbridge – journeys of not less than 120 kilometres in the best case, nearly 200 kilometres in the worst case,” Swann said in a press release.

“As a physician and a grandfather, my heart goes out to these families.”

Aspen Health spokesperson Scott Donaldson said in 2004 the decision was made to close Jasper’s delivery room because the obstetrics physician was leaving.

Amy Wilcox, a Jasper resident who delivered her first baby, William, just a few weeks ago on March 23, said driving to Hinton to give birth raised a number of concerns for her. First was the weather. “Especially after the winter we had,” Wilcox said. “Driving 50 minutes in labour... obviously it’s a concern to be in that much pain, and the fact that anything could happen.”

As well, as she’s been told, a woman needing an emergency cesarean section is supposed to get to the hospital in ten minutes. “Even in an ambulance it would take half an hour,” she said.

But one of the biggest issues Wilcox ran into was a result of shared care, which means that during her pregnancy she saw a doctor in Jasper while a Hinton doctor would deliver her baby. It saved Wilcox from driving back and forth to appointments in Hinton, which are as common as once per week for the last four weeks before giving birth.

But when Wilcox and her partner called ahead before setting off for Hinton General Hospital, they learned their Hinton doctor had gone out of town without notifying them.

“It was bad enough we didn’t get to see her that often,” Wilcox said. “But we had a face with a name, we had a birth plan.” Though Wilcox said her replacement was “great,” at the time she was wishing she could have phoned her Jasper doctor and asked him to perform the delivery.

Wilcox was out of the hospital within a day, as per standard procedure, but she expressed sympathy for new mothers who have cesarean sections and who are required to stay in the hospital for two to four days. Their partners “may have to leave, if you have responsibilities, you could be driving in and back (from Hinton).”

And even leaving the hospital promptly wasn’t a great experience. “The drive back was not the most comfortable, I was in pain,” Wilcox said. “I know it’s miniscule in comparison,” she said, as by the time it’s over, mothers have the gratification of having delivered their babies, but these concerns can easily add to an already potentially stressful time.

Wilcox did ask the doctors and nurses at Seton Hospital in Jasper why she would have to go down the road to Hinton. She was told it’s because the hospital doesn’t have the equipment to do a cesarean section, and that the hospital staff can’t stay on top of their emergency skills because of the low number of births in Jasper (about 50 each year).

Fortunately, the drive in the dark at midnight, when it was time for Wilcox to head to the hospital, was better than she expected and baby William was born healthy and safe.

Spokesperson for Alberta Health Bruce Conway called the cancellation of obstetrics in Brooks a temporary measure until physicians are “comfortable with staffing levels.” In the meantime, patients are being referred to Medicine Hat, Calgary and Lethbridge, a town more than two hours from Brooks.

According to Swann, the Stelmach administration is not recruiting and retaining doctors and nurses in rural Alberta. “Obstetrics is a core service of the health system, a service this government can no longer deliver in a growing number of rural communities,” Swann said.

“It’s time for this government to stop fiddling with health care administration and get down to brass tacks: find more doctors and nurses, create more capacity in our hospitals, cut down wait times.”