North York General Hospital Opens New Midwife-led Care Clinic
TORONTO [October 3, 2022] – North York General Hospital (NYGH) has just opened the doors to a unique clinic led by midwives to provide timely access to care during pregnancy and in the days and weeks following childbirth.
Funded through the Ontario Ministry of Health Extended Midwifery Care Model (EMCM) Program, the NYGH Midwifery Care Clinic will help patients, regardless of their provider and whether they delivered in the hospital or at home, to conveniently access necessary prenatal and postpartum clinical services, including prenatal consultation, pain management, infant feeding, wound care, newborn jaundice and wellness checks for patients and newborns post delivery.
“Midwives have long been a vital part on NYGH’s interdisciplinary birthing program. With our new clinic, more patients, infants and families will benefit from clinical care provided by our talented midwifery team throughout the important prenatal and post-partum phases,” says Karyn Popovich, President and CEO of North York General Hospital.
“Access to post-partum care can especially be fragmented and confusing, with patients and newborns visiting walk-in clinics, emergency departments or urgent care clinics after delivery,” says Sheri Ferkl, Program Director of Maternal Newborn and Paediatric Care at North York General Hospital. “The NYGH Midwifery Care Clinic will help close these gaps by providing a one-stop clinical service offering, both in person and virtually, for a full range of post-partum clinical services.”
The clinic is open Sunday to Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and is located on the same floor as the hospital’s other maternal, newborn and paediatric services. Patients can self refer or their health care provider can refer them. The NYGH Midwifery Care Clinic can facilitate hospital admissions when required and arrange direct referrals to specialists. Patients are not required to first visit a family physician or other provider for access. For more information see Midwifery Care Clinic.
“Our government will continue to invest in the health system to ensure Ontarians can access timely care throughout all stages of pregnancy, including the post-partum phase,” says Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “This innovative clinic will help growing families receive treatment closer to home.”
For more than 25 years, NYGH has been a leader in integrating midwives into its comprehensive maternal, newborn and paediatric program which is affiliated with Uptown Midwives and Midwifery-Care North Don River Valley. The Ontario Association of Midwives awarded NYGH the Midwife Hospital Integration Award in 2020 for our commitment to high-quality, interdisciplinary care for parents and newborns.
“Registered midwives provide exceptional care for maternal and newborn patients throughout pregnancy, birth and the early post-partum period,” says Andrea Levy, Head Midwife of the Maternal Newborn Program at North York General Hospital. “With the opening of the NYGH Midwifery Care Clinic, we are truly excited to extend personalized, comprehensive and efficient care to even more patients and their babies in our community.”
Each year, NYGH delivers just under 5,000 babies and cares for approximately 18,000 children from newborns to teenagers. Our team is made up of obstetricians, family medicine providers, paediatricians, midwives, anaesthetists, nurses, and various other specialists and health care professionals who work together to meet the individual needs of pregnant individuals, families and newborns.
North York General Hospital
NYGH is an academic community hospital, affiliated with the University of Toronto, that provides high-quality acute, ambulatory, and long-term care to approximately half a million people across seven sites and those beyond referred to us for specialized care. NYGH has one of the busiest single-site birthing centres in the country and was ranked Canada’s leading community hospital by Newsweek for the fourth consecutive year in 2022.