Since moving up to Collingwood/the Blue Mountains in May of 2024, I have spoken to several community members about their labour/birth experiences at Collingwood General & Marine Hospital. Note, this isn’t always necessarily information I request, but when I meet people and they find out I’m a Childbirth Educator and Doula, I find people launch quite willingly into their birth stories and experiences. Women and parents are keen to share their birth experiences when a window opens, whether their stories are positive or negative. As a doula I understand, too, that the experience is nuanced, sometimes lengthy and a mix of positive and negative. Labour and birth trauma can exist in subtle ways from births that were overall positive as well.

What I’ve heard, in general so far, is that Collingwood G+M Hospital is not an ideal place to give birth. It sounds like there is much room for improvement when it comes to the labour and maternity experience in our local Collingwood Hospital.

The bulk of my experience being at many hospital births throughout the GTA including Mount Sinai, St Mike’s, St Joe’s, Peterborough, Mississauga Trillium, Mississauga Credit Valley, and others, is that the hospital birth experience can vary widely dependent on many factors; and there are overarching issues that are more obvious or current today in some hospitals more than others.

In my 10 years as a birth professional in the Greater Toronto Area and within 2 hours of the GTA, I have seen remarkably terrible birth experiences to wonderful, peaceful, and informed birth experience in hospitals. Factors include healthcare practitioners policies and experience and there are hospital policies to consider as well.

Some old fashioned practices of routine eye ointment for baby, continual fetal monitoring (versus intermittent) for all labouring people, not using water or movement in labour, and pushing on your back are all still prevalent in hospitals today.

Collingwood General and Marine Hospital birth and labour experience is in need of improvement. While is provides a safe option for birth, there is constantly room for improvement in the care and comfort provided to new parents in hospital. This is where the Doula is so extremely important, especially in hospital labours and births.

The Doula adds the touch (the je ne sais quoi, if you will) of comfort, support, and knowledge to enhance your experience. Clients often report a change in how staff talk to them when their birth doula is in or out of the room. The Doula brings alternatives, guidance, suggestions, and a third part negotiator to the table. The Doula invites water, movement, breath, and so much more.

The Doula’s confidence and calm alone can be enough to increase the labouring individual’s oxytocin for a boost of physiologic birth hormones. Often, I see this as a progress in labour immediately after I arrive on scene. The doula comfort is available in home in early labour and/or in hospital at any time. Even in the surgical operating room, in case of a planned or unplanned Cesarean.

Labouring individuals and new families deserve better access to education and quality supplemental care in pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Doulas are allowed and encouraged in hospital (exclusions do occur, such as during COVID-19, though virtual doula support is still valuable). It is essential to have someone with exceptional knowledge about the physiological birth process, fetal positioning, waterbirth, reducing postpartum hemorrhage and so much more.

Inquire with us today to have a doula present for support if you are planning to give birth at Collingwood General & Marine hospital. You can have better. You deserve better. Birth deserves to bet better. It is reducing violence at birth that can foster a more peaceful future.