The Government in British Columbia has cut a child welfare program, referred to as “birth alerts.”
“Used in hospitals for decades in B.C. and in other provinces and territories, these alerts are issued, without the consent of the expectant parents, where there is a potential safety risk to infants at birth,” Katrine Conroy, the Minister of Children and Family Development, said in a statement announcing the change.
Birth alerts were often put into place when hospital staff wished to indicate to the ministry that a parent was potentially unfit or a threat to their new child’s safety. The alerts were used mainly for marginalized women, especially Indigenous women.
The new approach will provide families and women better support with newborns and services like improved prenatal care. Centre Director Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, Aki-kwe has long advocated for this change.
“It really impacted the ability of moms to breastfeed, to make sure that that early bonding happened. The way in which they were often treated, in this really sensitive time, was not in keeping with the standards that should have applied,” she says. “It gives me a great deal of comfort to see some of the key recommendations that I made being actioned, and I know that’s how we bring really meaningful change for children and families.”
Aki-kwe
Read the CityNews article, “B.C. ends controversial policy that removes newborns from families.”
For more on child welfare legislation, read the recent Director’s Update.
