College of Midwives of Ontario
As midwives know, setting and maintaining high professional standards is fundamental to public protection and public confidence in the midwifery profession. At the College, we need to ensure that our standards of practice clearly set out the high standards we expect of all midwives. This led us to develop the new Professional Standards for Midwives (Professional Standards), which were approved by Council on March 21st.
The Second Birth Attendant standard sets out the College’s expectations for non-midwife attendants who provide intrapartum and postpartum care in the role of a second midwife. Currently, the College’s Second Birth Attendant standard applies only to midwifery practices in Alternate Practice Arrangements (APA 2) that grants “permission” to work below the College’s Model of Care standard that requires the attendance of two midwives at every birth.
As part of the ongoing review cycle of College Standards, Council approved on September 30th, 2015 a revised Code of Ethics and Laboratory Testing Standard.