Overview
The Alberta Midwifery Strategy aims to strengthen the midwifery workforce and give Albertans more access to maternal health services, particularly in rural, remote and Indigenous communities.
Bringing maternal care closer to home
Midwives play an important role in improving the health outcomes for women, newborns and families. They help ensure Albertans can access high-quality maternal health care anywhere in the province by bringing maternal care closer to home.
Comprehensive pregnancy care
Midwives provide comprehensive low-risk pregnancy care from early pregnancy through labour and birth.
Community-focused care
Midwives contribute to the health and well-being of society within a physically and culturally safe model of care.
Postpartum support for mothers and babies
Midwives support the health and safety of mothers and babies until 6 weeks after birth.
Reduce pressure on health care services
Midwives play a key role in reducing pressure on health care services.
Funding
We are investing $10 million over 3 years to implement the strategy.
| Year | Investment |
|---|---|
| 2024-25 | $2 million |
| 2025-26 | $3 million |
| 2026-27 | $5 million |
Purpose
Evolving, strengthening, and empowering a healthy midwifery workforce to deliver and improve access to midwifery services across the Alberta maternal health care continuum.
Objectives
The Alberta Midwifery Strategy objectives align with the 5 areas of focus in the Health Workforce Strategy. The Midwifery Strategy's 5 focus areas will strengthen midwifery care and support midwifery practice. They are fundamental for midwifery health workforce planning and will guide the strategy's implementation.
Focus areas
Review the highlights of the 5 strategic focus areas below or read the full strategy.
Support and retain
- Engage with currently practising registered midwives and other birth workers to assess challenges.
- Create programs that support retention of midwives in Alberta, especially in Indigenous, rural, and remote communities.
Attract
- Engage with Indigenous populations, rural, and remote communities to determine needs and opportunities for midwifery services.
- Implement innovative initiatives to attract midwives to Alberta (including internationally educated midwives), especially in Indigenous, rural, and remote communities.
Enable
- Prioritize critical issues impacting midwifery service delivery based on comprehensive data and research.
- Determine partnership opportunities with other primary care practitioners to refine and enhance shared care models.
Strengthen
- Improve collection and availability of accurate, relevant workforce data.
- Utilize relevant metrics for measuring progress on the Alberta Health Workforce Strategy.
Innovate and evolve
- Identify key supports for all Indigenous birth workers to build local community capacity alongside midwives.
- Implement care models that enable optimal interprofessional collaborative practice.
Success measures
Progress in each focus area will be monitored and measured as funded projects are implemented. Performance indicators include:
- access to midwifery services in underserved areas
- increasing the number of midwives and other birth workers providing care to Albertans
- distribution of midwives and other birth workers across rural, remote, and urban regions
- improved engagement and satisfaction of midwives
- sustainability and improvement of midwives graduating from educational programs
- retention of the Alberta midwifery workforce
- attracting midwives from outside Alberta
- efficiency of processing out-of-province credential assessment and recognition
Next steps
The Alberta Midwifery Strategy contains short, medium and long-term goals to strengthen midwifery care and support midwifery practice.
Short-term
Improving midwifery care for Indigenous populations through provider and community assessment/engagement.
Medium-term
Assess trends and issues impacting midwifery attrition and identify supports to sustain midwifery practice.
Long-term goals
Formalize guidelines, standards and processes to support the integration of midwifery practice. Evaluate effectiveness of midwifery programs and services.
Timeline
In alignment with Alberta's Health Workforce Strategy, we will continue working with our partners to explore and develop innovative opportunities to realize the vision of the Alberta Midwifery Strategy.
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2024–25
- Engagement with Indigenous communities and birth workers to assess current needs and inform future direction.
- Pilot innovative projects to support clients, communities, and midwives within Indigenous populations.
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2025–26
- Assess data gaps/needs and further develop resources needed to provide and monitor midwifery services effectively.
- Attract and retain internationally educated midwives through innovative initiatives.
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2026–27
- Promote the public awareness of midwifery practice and integration in a team-based model with primary care.
- Engage with underserved populations and promote interdisciplinary models of team-based care.
- Align midwifery demand, capacity, and effectiveness through evidence-informed monitoring and evaluation.
News
Advancing midwifery access in Alberta (February 13, 2025)