Alberta midwives concerned demand for care outpaces availability

The waitlist for a midwife is so long in Alberta that trained professionals say they're looking to work elsewhere.

The waitlist for a midwife is so long in this province that trained professionals say they’re looking to work elsewhere.

Demara Mierau is 25 weeks pregnant, and when she found out she was pregnant, she immediately reached out to a midwife.

“I tried to contact one directly. She was already too busy after one week. She had too many babies (also due) in May,” she said.

She’s still on a waitlist.

Mierau’s almost in the third trimester, and she’s realizing she might not get the pregnancy and birth care she wanted for her first baby.

“I was on the waitlist for Calgary and the surrounding area, so Okotoks, Cochrane, Bragg Creek and I didn’t hear back from anybody,” said Mierau.

According to the Alberta Association of Midwives (AAM), 40 per cent of Albertans on the waitlist never get paired with a midwife or team of midwives.

Officials said it demonstrates increasing demand for low-risk birth professionals.

“From the last statistics that we looked at on our waitlist, we had about 4,500 people in care with a midwife and about 3,400 on the waitlist who were not able to get access,” said Marita Obst, spokesperson for the AAM and a registered practising midwife.

According to the Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services, as of January 2026, approximately 190 midwives are practising in Alberta, a 25 per cent increase from 2021, including around 100 in the Calgary area.

In ongoing negotiations with the province, the AAM is asking for more midwives to be covered by provincial health care in the large cities, as well as remote and rural areas.

The province said expansion is coming “through the Alberta Midwifery Strategy.”

“Supported by a $10-million investment over three years, the strategy focuses on enhancing services in rural, remote and Indigenous communities, supporting workforce planning and implementing initiatives to attract and retain midwives, including internationally educated professionals,” said an emailed statement from the ministry.

It said, “There is no cap on midwifery funding, and midwives have the ability to work to their individual capacity within Alberta. Currently, the capacity of hospitals to support midwife-assisted deliveries is limited, and we are actively working to address this.”

However, the AAM said current conditions are concerning, and that 70 per cent of new graduates are considering leaving Alberta to work in other provinces.

“We are very concerned that if we don’t have good sustainable programs and compensation in place for Alberta midwives that we will see a loss of our workforce,” said Obst.

Also in an emailed statement to CTV News, Primary Care Alberta said it’s committed to working to balance access across the region while ensuring all Albertans can receive care from a registered midwife.

There are 101 practising midwives in the Calgary area.