Celebrating a passionate midwife on International Women's Day

A calling from her own experience

Joanna’s path to midwifery began with her own experience as a mother.

“I was inspired to become a midwife when I experienced midwifery care with my second child in 1996,” she shares.

That experience set her on a steady and intentional path. She first pursued courses in breastfeeding and lactation support and childbirth education, later completing a diploma in herbalism focused on women’s health in the childbearing year.

She worked as an outreach worker with the BC Pregnancy Outreach Program in the Shuswap before making a life-changing decision.

“When my youngest child was four years old, I felt ready to commit to the new UBC Midwifery Education Program,” Joanna says.

She enrolled in the four-year baccalaureate degree program housed in the UBC Department of Medicine, Division of Family Practice. She’s been a practising midwife ever since.

A legacy of leadership

Midwifery in Kamloops has grown remarkably over the past two decades, and Joanna has been at the centre of that evolution.

In 2008, she became the first registered midwife in Kamloops to seek hospital privileges.

In 2011, her proposal to create a Department of Midwifery at Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) was granted.

From one midwife in 2008 the department has grown to 12 members, alongside many locums and supporting midwives.

What began as a humble effort is now fully integrated into the fabric of local maternity care, with midwives taking on leadership roles and helping guide the future vision for the community.

“Kamloops is unique,” Joanna reflects. “We have a dedicated group of midwives offering traditional one-to-one midwifery care, and we also have midwives working collaboratively within larger multidisciplinary teams to ensure every family has access to the care they need, when they need it.”

Joanna is quick to express gratitude for the professional relationships and community partnerships that made this growth possible. She also expresses gratitude to the Tkémlups te Secwépemc People for their welcome to the ancestral land on which she lives and works and for the many Secwépemc families who have entrusted her with their care. 

“I am blessed to be a part of this community and to serve our community to the best of my ability,” she says.

Expanding access to local maternity care

Today, Joanna continues her practice as a community midwife and also the clinical director of the Early Pregnancy Access to Care and Triage (EPACT) clinic in Kamloops. In this role, she oversees operations, coordinates with hospital and community maternity services, recruits providers, and ensures the service remains sustainable.

EPACT began as Joanna’s idea in 2023 to improve ease of access for families seeking early pregnancy care within the local maternity network. The program offers a low-barrier, interdisciplinary, midwifery-led service open to anyone newly pregnant in Kamloops and the Thompson region with no referral required.

With early grant funding support from the Canadian Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine and ongoing support from Interior Health beginning in spring 2024, the clinic quickly became essential to local maternity care.

Since opening its doors in September 2023, EPACT has supported more than 1,400 families.

The team, which includes 12 part-time registered midwives from across B.C., a full-time nurse practitioner and a full-time registered nurse, EPACT sees 50 to 60 new pregnant people every month.

The clinic provides virtual and in-person care in the first and second trimesters, arranges bloodwork and ultrasounds within recommended timeframes, facilitates high-risk referrals and offers early postpartum care up to six weeks after birth.

“Early access to a health-care provider ensures that pregnancy investigations can be arranged in a timely manner,” Joanna explains. “It improves health outcomes and reduces pressure on other parts of the system.”

Passion rooted in respect and choice

When asked what she loves most about her work, Joanna smiles.

“I love everything about my work, except maybe the paperwork,” she laughs.

However, her deeper passion is clear.

“I love supporting families through the profound journey of pregnancy and birth and becoming parents, often more than once. I love supporting patient choice and advocating for respectful, consensual health care that centres the individual as the most important person, with agency and ability to fully participate in their own health-care decisions,” she notes.

She is equally passionate about policy and education, advocating for a health-care system that embeds these values into how care is understood and delivered.

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