I can explain what goes on in Quebec but not in the other Canadian
provinces since they all are different. Also...what I am about to write
differs slightly from region to region in Quebec but is roughly the
same...and is subject to change with all the actual turmoil in health
care....

We have free community health services all throughout Quebec. Nurses,
social workers, educators, family ancillary helpers, etc...work for
community health centers called CLSC in every region. Depending on the
size of the region, there could be one or many of them. In Western
Quebec, we actually have ten CLSC but some of them are merging actually
so I don't know how many we will end up with!

For perinatal matters, this is what is offerred.(We also have services
for kids, for adults in postoperative conditions, for people with
chronic conditions who stay home, for older people, etc...).

If you have an uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery, you will see the
nurse during the prenatal classes (if you don't pay for private ones)
and then have a visit or a phone call from a perinatal nurse after the
delivery. The nurse visits in the home and evaluates mom and baby and
the rest of the family also, on physical and psychosocial matters. She
can come back or offer a reference to another professional if she
believes you need it. She is supposed to be bf oriented but, as Heather
said for England, not all of them are. I expect this will change when
the new official position of the Order of Nurses will "force" them to be
bf friendly; it is expected within two weeks...

If on the other hand, if you have a complicated pregnancy, for example,
presence of hypertension or premature labor or twin pregnancy, a nurse
(and the same one throughout your pregnancy) will visit you in your home
on a weekly basis or more if needed, to assess you and your family, and
to help educating on healthy pregnancy, on labor and delivery. This aims
at avoiding hospitalizations. This same nurse will be the one who will
visit you in the postpartum period, once or more if needed.

All of this is paid by the government.....still.....


Louise Dumas, R.N., M.S.N., PhD
Professor-researcher in Nursing Sciences
University of Quebec in Hull
(Western Quebec, Canada)

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