The MATCH (Midwifery and Toronto Community Health) Program is excited to be celebrating its five-year anniversary! The program was first funded by the Ministry of Health in the spring of 2018. This was followed by several months of work to assemble an initial team of four midwives and begin delivering babies at Michael Garron Hospital, the Toronto Birth Centre and clients’ homes. In January 2019, the MATCH Program had their first birth at Michael Garron Hospital and we are thinking of that baby as she just turned five!
Since 2018, the program has grown from four to six midwives, has provided pregnancy, labour, birth, and postpartum care for many families in East Toronto, and has expanded program services to offer medication abortion care. The program has also added a social worker to support clients’ social and mental health needs. Additionally, clients are often connected with dietician and physiotherapist services, as well as primary health care for non-obstetric concerns.
In the spring of 2023, the MATCH team began staffing the Early Pregnancy Clinic at Michael Garron Hospital. This means that people seeking care in the emergency room with concerns like bleeding in early pregnancy now have follow-up outpatient care with one of the MATCH Program midwives. This is a new role for midwifery in the Ontario health care system and it is hoped that midwifery leadership in the outpatient setting can improve wait times and follow-up care for the childbearing population of East Toronto.
Here’s to the next five years!