No midwifery plans for P.E.I.: Gillan

P.E.I. Health Minister Chester Gillan says the Island will not be following Nova Scotia's lead with new legislation to regulate midwifery.

'It would be adding another service to one that is already provided.' Health Minister Chester Gillan

Gillan said there just isn't enough demand to bring midwives into the health-care system.

"There is not a pending need at the moment to offer this service along with normal services that we offer for birthing," he said.

"It's not the fact that we don't believe in this or that their information or that their research is erroneous. It is not. But it would be adding another service to one that is already provided."

Nova Scotia recently passed legislation to regulate midwifery. That leftP.E.I., Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick as the only provinces that haven't passed midwife legislation. The service is funded in most provinces where it has been regulated.

Gillan says it is legal for people to have babies at home in P.E.I., but people who want to give birth with the help of a midwife have pay out of their own pockets.

Close to 1,300 babies are born on P.E.I. each year.