It is a surprising reality that some mothers-to-be in Canada are not covered by our public health insurance system (http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2014/03/21/Uninsured-Moms/ ). Some of these mothers-to-be are refugees. Some of them are new immigrants. Some of them are married to Canadians and are facing long waits to have their applications approved. Expectant mothers who are uninsured face high out-of-pocket health care costs and as a result may not access appropriate health care or may make health care decisions that are economically driven. According to one study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3717732/) 80 percent of uninsured moms in Canada accessed inadequate prenatal care, one in 15 did not access any prental care, and their babies were more likely to need neonatal resuscitation and access to cesarean sections.

All babies born in Canada are Canadian citizens. These Canadian citizens deserve access to healthcare to ensure that their health is not put at risk - and that care should begin before birth. Further, it is unfair for the children of Canadian mothers and foreign fathers to have access to healthcare, but the children of Canadian fathers and foreign mothers not to enjoy the same access to healthcare.

Pregnancy and childbirth are times of high health vulnerability and as a result what is done or not done can have tremendous and expensive consequences for both women and their children.  Often the public health care system will have to pay for the consequences of inadequate care during pregnancy and childbirth and as a result a policy that denies access to publically funded health care services during pregnancy and childbirth may result in higher health expenditures in the future.  Those expenditures could be avoided if appropriate maternity care was accessible and publically funded for ALL pregnant women in Canada. 

We call upon the federal government and provincial ministries of health to remedy this deplorable situation faced by uninsured mothers-to-be resident in Canada and ask that they institute a program to ensure these mothers have access and coverage for care related to pregnancy and childbirth while they are resident in Canada.

The health of future Canadians depends on it!