Upscale wrote:
"Chris Friesen" wrote in message
Health care is locally governed, so there are going to be regional
differences. For reference, I'm in my 30s, and live in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, Canada, a city of a bit over 200000 people.

What's the physician availability like there Chris?

Around here, it's no problem. Some of the smaller towns are having a
real difficulty, and up north it's a big deal. I think some of the
larger cities are having problems with this as many MDs are specializing
because they can make more money with less work. I understand that some
family docs have a sideline of cosmetic surgery work to bring in some
extra cash--there has been discussion about the possibility of conflict
of interest when the same doctor is practicing both privately and publicly.

My wife and I just had our first child. No significant delays,
generally good care. We did pay for a doula to help us through the
process, but midwives are covered in some areas and that might be an
option for next time.

I've got a friend who is considering hiring a midwife. Was it expensive and
did you find his/her services worthwhile?

I may be biased, my mom is a midwife.

To clarify, doulas and midwives are two different things. A doula is
like a birth coach, she (usually it's a woman) is there primarily to
help the individual mother. (As opposed to the hospital staff, who are
handling multiple mothers and are worried primarily about physical
rather than mental wellbeing.) Doulas are in addition to the regular
obstetrician.

A midwife generally replaces an obstetrician. They generally handle
low-risk births. They are generally willing to do home births if there
are no complications, they have hospital admitting privileges, can
prescribe medications, and they generally spend more time on each
individual patient than an obstetrician does. The wikipedia article on
midwifery is fairly good.

As for expense, it's going to vary by area. I have no idea what the
going rate for a midwife is.

Chris