Bella Bella:  A Case Study on the Implications of the Closures of Rural Maternity Services

August 2005 - December 2007

A view of a beach in Bella Bella during fieldwork

Research Team

Principal Investigator: Jude Kornelsen

Co-Investigators:  Andrew Kotaska and Liz Cooper

Support Team:  Shelagh Levangie, Georgia Walton, Evelyn Eng

Community Advisory Research Team

Louisa Willie, Dawn Wilson, Jennifer Carpenter, Pauline Waterfall, Marie Duperrault, Steve Cairns, with the assistance of Wanda Christianson who provided guidance and support in the research process.

Project Summary

In 2000, residents of Bella Bella lost access to local maternity services.  Since that time parturient women have been referred out of the community for prenatal diagnostics and for ultrasound.  Provincial data suggests that when a community loses its local maternity services, newborn outcomes are worse than when services are maintained, regardless of where women give birth.  This research investigates what the loss of local services means for the health of mothers and their babies, what the costs are to band councils, and how women feel about the quality of their birthing experiences.

Specific objectives include:

1. Comparing newborn and maternal perinatal outcomes prior to and after the closure of local maternity services;
2. Describing the financial costs involved in dislocation of parturient women from their local community; and
3. Pilot testing a survey of the quality of rural women's experience of childbirth.

Project Updates

Data collection for the project has been completed. The research team is committed to taking the guidance of the Research Advisory Committee in regards to knowledge translation.