Dear Editor:

We would like to thank the town council for the recent discussion regarding declining health services in Invermere, particularly the discussion around maternity services.

Indeed, our delivery numbers in Invermere are low. We are approaching 20 deliveries as this fiscal year is coming to a close. This makes it a challenge for the maternity health care team, who thoroughly enjoy doing obstetrics.

However, there is well-documented evidence that continuing to offer low-risk maternity services in areas without surgical back-up is safer than transferring out all of these patients, safer for both mothers and babies.

In Invermere our maternity team is made up of a small group of physicians, a midwife and attending nurses.

We work in consultation with each other and with our transfer centre specialists in Cranbrook. We have a local perinatal committee that regularly reviews maternity policies and standards of care and

we are being proactive with our education of maternity care providers.

It is critical that pregnant patients are assessed to see that they fulfill the criteria for having a low-risk pregnancy and, if that is not fulfilled, delivery at

another site is indicated.

For those that do fit this criteria, our team is confident that Invermere district hospital is a warm, caring and safe place to have your baby if you choose. If it wasnt, we wouldnt be doing it.

Invermere Maternity Health Care team