19 years in the making

In 1992 Alberta legalized midwifery. When I first thought about becoming a midwife in 1996, there was a web page somewhere stating that the U of A would have a midwifery program starting up in 1997. But a lack of provincial funding, which lead to a very small number of midwives practicing in Alberta, meant there weren't enough preceptors in the province to support a midwifery program. Which has really sucked for those of us in Alberta trying to become midwives.

But funding has brought about many changes! In 2006 there were 29 midwives in Alberta. Funding began in 2009 and there were 33 (one of them was me!). And now there are 52!

On Friday, a semi cryptic announcement was emailed out.


Mount Royal has been working hard to start a midwifery program for about the last five years. They were hoping to receive funding to start in 2010, and everyone has been on pins and needles the last few weeks waiting to find out if they would receive funding in time to start this September.

This is the sign that greeted us outside. Even though we all knew what the announcement was going to be, it was shocking to see this sign! And after nowhere near enough sleep 2 nights in a row, I almost burst into tears.


It was a much bigger event than I thought it would be, with many midwives, Mount Royal staff, prospective students, 3 MLAs and a few TV cameras in attendance! It was so exciting to be at this announcement. This was my second big midwife event as a midwife, and it was kind of surreal that I actually became a midwife before a school opened up in Alberta.

Here are some super awesome camera phone pictures.

Dean of the program as she finally said it was a bachelor of midwifery program that would be starting. (I waited until she actually saying this before I took my blurry shot!)


Advanced education minister


Health minister


It shocks me when midwifery makes the news!