Delivery
Regardless of your choices regarding the birth of your child, the team of midwives that follows you during your pregnancy will be with you when you deliver your baby.
Three possible locations for your delivery
If you’ve chosen to be followed by a midwife, you have three options:
1- Giving birth at the Colette-Julien Birthing Centre in Mont-Joli
The Colette-Julien Birthing Centre offers cozy rooms where you can give birth safely in an atmosphere that feels like home. The Birthing Centre also has a therapeutic bath that you can use during your labour as well as a living room and kitchen accessible for the duration of your stay.
When it’s time to come to the birthing centre to deliver your baby, you’ll be greeted by the midwife who will accompany you and ensure that your labour goes smoothly. A second member of the team of midwives will join you when the birth of your child is imminent.
Your midwife will stay with you for 3 to 4 hours after the birth to ensure your healthy recovery, conduct a complete examination of the newborn and offer breastfeeding and nutrition support for your baby. After the midwife leaves, birthing assistants will prepare homecooked meals and offer breastfeeding support to the new parents.
2- Giving birth at home
There are many different reasons for giving birth at home.
Some people refer to the sense of safety they feel in their own environment, the fact that they consider childbirth a normal event and a natural part of their life, the easier involvement of other children and the continuity of delivery and post-natal care in one location.
If this is what you want, the team of midwives will evaluate your request based on, among other things, the location of your home and its distance from the hospital in order to ensure a safe delivery.
If a home birth is an option for you, your midwife will visit your home to ensure that it complies with accessibility standards and to show you how to prepare the space appropriately.
3- Giving birth in hospital
You can give birth in the care of the team of midwives at Hôpital régional de Rimouski and the Centre hospitalier régional du Grand-Portage (Rivière-du-Loup).
As in other birthing environments, midwives provide care on their own and the medical team is involved only in the event of complications.
Giving birth safely
Giving birth safely in a calm atmosphere with a warm human presence is essentially what everyone wants.
Midwives have the expertise and experience to ensure the safety of you and your child.
Midwives are members in good standing of a professional order just like physicians, dentists and pharmacists. The Ordre des sages-femmes du Québec protects the public with respect to the practice of midwifery in Québec (www.osfq.org).
Like health professionals, who are specialists in normal pregnancies, delivery and post-natal follow-up, midwives are skilled in the early detection of any risks to the mother and the newborn.
Midwives have the skills, training and equipment needed to reassure parents that the birth of their child will take place in a safe environment. If complications occur, the team of midwives provides the required care and, if needed, consults with or transfers the mother to a family physician or specialist.
Midwives have three-and-a-half years of specialized university education (Bachelor’s in midwifery). The members of the team of midwives must regularly renew their certification in advanced neonatal resuscitation and obstetric emergencies.