With nurses headed to the front lines, the province's midwives are taking over post-natal care and Quebec's midwives are straining to keep up as more women seek non-hospital births to avoid COVID-19 exposure and the health-care system adjusts assignments and responsibilities.
The province isn't even close to having enough midwives to meet the demand.
No more home births before the pandemic, about 20 per cent of the midwives' clients opted to give birth at home, but that is no longer an option. In March suspended all home births in Montreal and all regions where birthing centres are located.
About 95 per cent of women who seek out the care of midwives turn to one of the province's 12 birthing centres.
