Labour & Delivery
Temiskaming Maternity Care Group
The Temiskaming Maternity Care Group is a group of Family Medicine physicians providing complete medical care during your pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Our goal is to provide you with individualized and evidence based care so you will have a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and healthy baby. We have a strong culture of teamwork and patient-centered care. We aim to make your pregnancy and delivery as natural and safe as possible, involving you in decisions about your care and working closely with other health care professionals to ensure the best outcome for you and your baby.
Prenatal Documentation
Labour & Delivery
We deliver approximately 250-300 babies each year. Our team of highly qualified health care professionals offer Level 1B Maternal Care and Level 1 Nursery Care for the parent and baby. We are a training site with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and have a variety of Medical Students and Resident Doctors in their training years.
Temiskaming Hospital is located in Temiskaming Shores and is 1.5 hours north of North Bay and 2 hours south of Timmins. We are a small community rural hospital with 2 labour rooms and 6 postpartum rooms providing service for the entire Temiskaming District. We have state of the art Infant Care systems to care for your baby immediately after birth. We encourage skin-to-skin contact immediately following delivery as long as baby is stable. All rooms have a bathroom/shower, televisions, and telephones as well as a sleeper chair/cot for your support person or significant other. Our family-centered program strongly encourages the primary support person to stay with the birth parent and baby throughout their hospital stay.
If your care is deemed too high risk for our center, then this will be communicated to you and your provider will refer your care to a higher-level unit. This may include North Bay, Timmins, Sudbury, Ottawa or Toronto, depending on the care needs.
The Temiskaming Health Unit provides in hospital visits and assessment to address your questions and post-partum and post-natal care needs. Home visits from the health unit and lactation services are available and encouraged.
Meet the Doctors
Introduction
The Temiskaming Family Medicine Maternity Care Group provides complete medical care during your pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Our goal is to provide you with individualized and evidence-based care so you will have a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and healthy baby. We have a strong culture of teamwork and patient-centered care. We aim to make your pregnancy and delivery as natural and safe as possible, involving you in decisions about your care and working closely with other health care professionals to ensure the best outcome for you and your baby.
Prenatal appointments are usually every 4 weeks until 28 weeks, followed by every 2 weeks until 36 weeks and finally weekly until delivery. At approximately 28-30 weeks, you will be provided a Pre-Admission package for you to book a Pre-Admission Appointment. This will include you meeting with one of our Labour & Delivery nurses for a tour of our unit, reviewing education topics and completion of paperwork in plans for your admission and delivery.
Referral
Our group accepts referrals through our centralized referral form. Every effort will be made to attach a patient to their preferred provider but at times due to volume and referral controls, you may be matched to an alternate provider.
Centralized Referral Forms
Health Care Connect
Health Care Connect is a program of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to help Ontarians without a family health care provider find one. The program refers people without a regular family health care provider to family physicians and nurse practitioners who are accepting new patients in their communities. Register by phone at 1-800-445-1822, Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, or online.
For patients who have no current primary care provider, we also accept self-referrals. We will make every effort to match you with a provider that will also be able to accept you into their Family Medicine practice post-delivery. If you are not currently registered on Health Care Connect and would like to sign up, click below.
Meet the Doctors
Dr. Lawson
Dr. Morency
Dr. Sears
Dr. Alexander
Dr. Besner
Dr. Currie
Dr. Harvey
Meet the Nurses
At Temiskaming Hospital, you will be cared for by our highly trained team of Obstetrical Registered Nurses who exemplify and uphold the values and guiding principles of perinatal nursing in Canada.
Caring - We foster caring relationships with childbearing persons and families by providing safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care, promoting family health and development, and assisting when childbearing challenges occur. Caring is demonstrated through authentic presence which is achieved by addressing physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychosocial needs throughout the care trajectory.
Health and Well-Being - We promote health and well-being by assisting childbearing persons and their families to strengthen their knowledge and skills to achieve their optimal level of well-being throughout the childbearing continuum.
Justice - We uphold principles of justice by safeguarding human rights, equity and gender inclusivity, and fairness with childbearing persons, families, and newborns.
Informed Decision-Making - We recognize the rights of patients to make informed choices that are congruent with their own beliefs and values, and advocate for them to act on this right.
Dignity - We share the intimacy of childbirth with childbearing persons and their families. Knowing that childbirth creates lasting memories of this important developmental transition, we strive to positively influence the childbearing experience by creating a healing environment that promotes and protects human dignity.
Confidentiality - We recognize the importance of privacy, confidentiality, and maintaining the trust of childbearing persons and their families.
Accountability - We act with integrity and in a manner consistent with our professional obligations, responsibilities, and standards of practice.
Information for Expectant Patients
Birth Plan
A birth plan is a tool that can be used to communicate your hopes and desires for your upcoming birth to your health-care team. A birth plan assists the health care team in understanding your preferences for labour, birth, and the immediate postpartum time. It provides an opportunity to:
Discuss pain management options during the pregnancy, and discourages a first discussion of these plans from happening in labour.
Discuss options for labour and infant feeding.
Clarify any misconceptions and promote realistic expectations.
Encourage pregnant patients to be active participants in their care (preferences are considered antenatally by patient and are documented and communicated).
Offer a patient’s interdisciplinary team a communication tool to allow for ongoing discussion.
We want to learn more about you and have a way for you to communicate your hopes to us regarding your labour, birth, and care throughout. Circumstances during your labour and birth can sometimes change the plan you made in pregnancy. Please communicate your birth plan to your health care team during your preadmission clinic appointment and upon presentation to the department.
Labor
If you think you are in labour or if you have any concerns, please contact Obstetric Department at (705) 647-1088 ext. 2124
Come to the hospital if:
Your water breaks, Check the colour and smell of the fluid
You have a lot of bright red bleeding and/or if you have any clots.
If your abdomen (tummy) stays hard all over for more than 5 minutes and does not get
Soft between contractions.
Have abdominal pain that just doesn’t go away
Most women will come to the hospital when they are in active labour (regular contractions every 5 minutes or closer for at least 2 hours) or when their water breaks. To find out more about how you will know if you are in labour, you should speak with your health care provider and/or visit the link below from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.
Post-Partum Care
Once stable following the birth of your child, you and baby will be moved into one of the post-partum rooms on our obstetrical department. It is here that the healthcare team will provide support and education on the following:
Uterus (fundus)
It should be firm and slowly shrink in size.
Bleeding (lochia)
Notify your nurse if you experience clots larger than a Toonie that do not easily break up.
Perineum (any tears or repairs)
Icepacks are provided to relieve any swelling and discomfort.
Rinse bottles are provided and used to cleanse the area.
Sitz baths (saltwater baths) are provided to assist in cleansing any stitches .
Vital Signs
Pain
C-section Incision
Breast/Chest
Bloodwork
Communicable Disease/ Immunization
Bonding/Attachment
Emotional Status and Mental Health
Support Systems and Resources
Skin-Skin
Infant Feeding
Assessing your baby
Lifestyle
Resources available in the community
Consultation with Timiskaming Health Unit
Patient Oriented Discharge Tools and Discharge Education Packages are provided to all patients before discharge from the hospital with a summary of in-hospital care, education and resources for in the community and all follow-up appointments.
Infant Feeding
Deciding how to feed your baby is an important decision and there are many things to consider. We encourage you to learn the facts about breast/chestfeeding, as well as the use of human milk and infant formula, so your infant feeding decision is informed. We also encourage you to discuss your thoughts, feelings, concerns and questions about feeding your baby with your family and your health care provider.
Ways to feed your infant include:
Breastfeeding: baby feeds directly from breasts (often the term used by women when feeding their infants)
Chestfeeding: baby feeds directly from the chest (often the term used by transgender men who have chosen to have a baby and lactate)
Human milk feeding: expressed human milk fed to infant via bottle or alternate feeding method
Formula feeding: infant formula fed via bottle or alternate feeding method
Human milk is different than infant formula. Infant formula is a commercial product, usually cow-milk based. Both feeding options have benefits and associated risks. Speak to your health care provider about risks associated with infant feeding, and how to minimize these.
To learn more about breast/chest feeding, please visit the following link.
Newborn Screening
Newborn screening is a test done shortly after birth to look for treatable diseases that usually show no symptoms in the newborn period. Early detection of these diseases through newborn screening prevents serious health problems and can save lives. Every newborn in Ontario is offered screening for early identification of these rare diseases.
There are two components to the screening:
Newborn Screening (NBS) – Through bloodwork, this screen tests for 29 rare diseases which are treatable. If not detected early, these diseases can cause major problems for your child’s health and development.
Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) Screening – Through pulse oximetry, this screen will test for heart conditions where the heart or major vessels around the heart may not have formed properly. These heart conditions can lead to serious medical problems during the first year of life if not treated.
A positive screening test does not mean that your baby has the disease. Further testing is required to confirm whether the disease is present or not and this will be undertaken in a timely fashion by our regional treatment center for newborn screening.
The optimal time to do these tests is prior to discharge from the hospital. Newborn screening is not mandatory but is considered the standard of care for every baby and is highly recommended. Our practice is to routinely screen all newborns. Please inform us if you wish to decline screening for your baby. We encourage you to discuss this decision with a health care provider as newborn screening is the only way to find babies with these diseases early enough to prevent serious, long-term health problems.
Infant Hearing Screen
Being able to hear is important for children to develop language skills. A small proportion of babies are born with hearing loss and others may develop it at a later time. Hearing loss can cause delays in learning to talk and can also lead to behavioral and emotional problems, as well as school difficulties. If an infant has hearing loss, the sooner it is identified, the better it is for this child’s development.
All babies born in Ontario will have a hearing screen in hospital usually prior to discharge but this can also be done in the community. An Infant Hearing Program (IHP) audiologist will test your baby’s hearing in a quiet space using a small earphone and will assess each ear’s and the brain’s response to sounds. If the test shows that there might be a problem with one or both ears, your baby will be referred to an audiologist. Further testing will take place to confirm the presence of hearing loss and determine what treatment and services are required.
Unplanned Pregnancy
Medical abortion consults (under 9 weeks gestation). Call and/or send consult directly to one of the offices listed below
Dr. Nichole Currie
Office (705) 672-3371
Fax (705) 672-5900Dr. Stacy Desilets
Office (705) 647-6100
Fax (705) 647-0173Dr. Marc-Andre Morency
Office (705) 647-6100
Fax (705) 647-0173
Sages-Femmes Temiskaming Midwives
Established in 2010 and located in Temiskaming Shores, Sages-femmes Temiskaming Midwives consists of one midwife and an office assistant. We serve all communities along Hwy 11 from Temagami to Kirkland Lake. We are primary health care professionals specializing in low risk maternal and newborn care. When needed, we also work closely with other health care professionals to provide safe, evidence-based and family-centered care.
Kim Cloutier-Holtz, RM
Temiskaming Midwives
20 May Street South, PO Box 38
New Liskeard, On P0J 1P0
Telephone: 705-647-6664
Fax: 705-647-7788
Resources
Pregancy, Birth, Newborn, Postpartum & Mental Health
Breastfeeding
Childhood Development
Immunization