Province will end birth alerts on at-risk mothers

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A decades-long practice of child-welfare officials apprehending newborn babies from hospitals under birth alerts was doing nothing to keep kids safe, Manitoba’s Families minister said Friday.

The province has announced it is ending birth alerts effective April 1 in hopes of encouraging pregnant women who are involved with the child-welfare system to work with Child and Family Services instead of fearing their babies will be taken away from them at birth. The provincial government estimates roughly 500 birth alerts were being issued each year in Manitoba, and there were 281 birth alerts placed on mothers between April and December 2019 — a 38 per cent decrease compared with the previous year, a department spokesperson said.

The province reviewed its use of birth alerts for more than a year after a legislative committee recommended doing away with the practice. The review found birth alerts weren’t helping children, Families Minister Heather Stefanson said.

“They were originally put in place to increase the safety of children. We found no evidence that was taking place, and really it is preventing pregnant moms from seeking the help they need to put together birthing plans,” Stefanson told reporters during a news conference Friday.

Birth alerts have allowed Child and Family Services to track expectant mothers officials deem high risk. Usually, those women have been in CFS care themselves or have already had other children apprehended into the child-welfare system. If CFS placed a birth alert on a woman, medical officials were required to notify CFS when that woman gave birth in hospital. It was common practice for social workers to then show up at the hospital and evaluate whether the baby should be taken..

The province says CFS workers will continue to apprehend newborns when it’s necessary. It’s unclear what procedures will replace birth alerts. Stefanson didn’t provide examples of how high-risk mothers will now be treated, and her office cut off reporters’ questions on the subject after about seven minutes. The province is not giving additional funding to supports for expectant mothers; Stefanson said grassroots organizations in the community already receive funding to do that work.

“Expectant moms were not coming forward and putting together birthing plans, they weren’t seeking help within the community because they were worried … that when they gave birth that their child would be apprehended, and so we think that by removing these birth alerts that more moms will come forward and seek the help that they need to put those birthing plans together,” Stefanson said.

For years, Indigenous advocates have called for an end to birth alerts, condemning the practice for unnecessarily separating babies from their families, severing vulnerable mothers’ maternal bonds and contributing to Manitoba’s highest per capita rate of children in CFS care — there are about 11,000 children in care in the province, and the majority of them are Indigenous. An emotional, livestreamed video of a two-day-old baby being taken from her mother at St. Boniface Hospital drew widespread attention to the practice of birth alerts in Manitoba after it went viral early last year.

After Stefanson spoke to reporters about the government’s decision, some Indigenous leaders expressed concerns about what the end of birth alerts will actually mean, and what practices child-welfare workers will be expected to follow after April 1.

David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, said he hasn’t been given any such information.

“We do have concerns that by just taking the (birth alert) name or the program or the form out, it doesn’t change the situation that we may be placing the baby at risk here. Whether you take the baby from the hospital or the house because they’re at risk doesn’t change the situation that people are concerned about — too many babies are being apprehended.”

Speaking to the Free Press from Ottawa Friday, Chartrand said government representatives should consult with Indigenous leaders to figure out next steps.

“When we try to just take something out without putting something better or more effective in place, then are we putting other children at risk now? Are we waiting for another mistake to happen and another child dies? So we need to look at these things in a more progressive way, but we need to do it as partners, as teams.”

Chartrand said Metis Child, Family and Community Services apprehended 31 babies in 2019, either at birth or up to a week old. Only a third of those apprehensions were due to birth alerts, he said. Eight of those 31 babies have already been returned home.

“The birth alert itself is not the only challenge we face in apprehending children,” Chartrand said.

There’s a lot more work to do to rebuild trust between Indigenous communities and the child-welfare system, said Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Southern Chiefs Organization. Work to prevent children from being apprehended by CFS has to include more support for housing, health care, education and training, as well as addictions treatment, he said.

“It’s good to hear that they understand that this is a big problem, it’s been around for a long time, but I’m worried about how sincere they are in terms of actually trying to end the practice and actually trying to change the way people are falling through the cracks,” Daniels said.

Last September, the B.C. government announced it was ending birth alerts based on a recommendation from the national inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls.

Asked during the news conference which other MMIWG inquiry recommendations the province will now tackle, Stefanson said she doesn’t “have all the answers to that right now.”

“We can’t go back. Obviously this has been in place (for) decades in our province, but we need to move forward, we need to start somewhere, so that’s where we’re starting from now,” she said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay