The goal of the SCBP is to bring pregnancy and birth back to a community-based, peer-supported, primary care experience.

The South Community Birth Program (SCBP) was established in October 2003 to pilot a unique maternity care program situated in the South Community area of Vancouver, British Columbia. At BC Women’s hospital, the Head of Family Practice, Sue Harris, and the Head of Midwifery, Lee Saxell, received funding through the Federal Government’s Primary Health Care Transition Funds, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and B.C. Women’s Hospital to pilot an innovative, collaborative, multidisciplinary program. Family physicians, midwives, community health nurses, and doulas all provide care in a community-based, culturally-appropriate, and woman-centered manner during pregnancy, birth and the newborn period. The SCBP is designed to improve the health outcomes of pregnant women in the underserved community of South Vancouver. This is the first such multidisciplinary program of its kind in Canada.

The SCBP has expanded into a space on 41st and Fraser Street that includes a large room for Connecting Pregnancy (CP) group care meetings. Women have the choice of receiving their care in CP groups with a doctor or midwife and a nurse, or in individual one-on-one visits. Women also have the option of being assigned a doula for support during labour and birth. To date, the SCBP has 44 trained doulas and among them they speak 24 languages as well as English. Women are matched with doulas with whom they can converse in their first languages.

Since 2003 the SCBP has cared for more than 1700 women, many of whom are new immigrants to Canada.

The SCBP is designed to bring pregnancy and birth back to a community-based, peer-supported, primary care experience. More specific goals include improving the health outcomes of women and their families by:

  • Developing an environment in which the SCBP team and families collaborate to meet the needs of childbearing women in their community.
  • Developing an environment in which the SCBP team assists women and their families to identify their own strengths and build confidence in their ability to give birth and become parents.
  • Developing an environment that encourages women and their families to assume an active role in their own primary health care.
  • Developing a strong sense of peer support among the women and their families, helping them to build community, reduce isolation, and provide ongoing support for each other when their care at SCBP is complete.
  • Providing a safe, positive birth experience through the reduction of interventions.
  • Providing support following the birth so that women can have a shortened hospital stay.

    Feedback from families, care providers and students, as well as early evaluation of the outcome data suggests that:

  • Women and their families can play an active role in their care. Through education, women are given the tools and skills to empower themselves during pregnancy, birth and after the arrival of their baby and their families are given the tools and skills to assist in this. More than half of the women who have received care at the SCBP now receive care through the Connecting Pregnancy (CP) program, which includes medical assessment, education and peer support. Data suggests that women and their partners find this a highly effective and satisfying way to receive care.
  • Targets for reducing interventions, including lowered Cesarean section rates, shortened hospital stays, and improved breastfeeding rates, are being met. Evaluation to confirm these outcomes is ongoing.
  • A collaborative team of nurses, physicians, midwives and doulas can successfully develop a unique approach to care. Practice guidelines have been established by the group and there is regular opportunity for evaluation and improvement.
  • Multidisciplinary students from medicine, midwifery and nursing are mentored through the program and their feedback has been very positive.
  • Use of OSCAR (the electronic medical record) allows efficient and effective communication among providers and greatly enhances the multidisciplinary teams’ ability to plan client care. In addition outcomes can be tracked on a day to day basis, which enables regular review and improvement of practice.

The South Community Birth Program has been granted charitable status through our associated foundation known as Families at the Center. Many of the families at SCBP are new immigrants struggling to settle while some have also been struck hard by the recession. SCBP care includes our wonderful doula program, food and educational materials for the Connecting Pregnancy programs, and food vouchers for fresh foods not provided by the local food banks. We also accept donations of newborn baby clothing, infant furniture and strollers. All of our programming is free of charge and we respectfully ask that those families that can afford to contribute help those families that cannot.

Donations to help support the program can be made through this charitable foundation, and will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Donations will be gratefully received either by drop-off at the South Community Birth Program's clinic location, or via mail at the Families at the Center mailing address:

Families at the Center
#201 - 5838 Fraser St
Vancouver, BC
V5W 2Z5

The South Community Birth Program is a joint project sponsored by: