Important Changes to Our Clinic Appointments and Home Visits

Clinic Appointments
Following the recommendations of the Association of Ontario Midwives, and the World Health Organization, we will be adopting a new schedule of prenatal appointments. This new schedule is aimed at reducing your risk of exposure to COVID-19 by limiting your contact outside of your home to only the essential visits. The new schedule calls for fewer appointments, and will be a mix of virtual and in-person assessments. You will learn more at your next visit. The schedule will be adjusted as needed for individual cases, to ensure you receive the care you and your baby need.

To facilitate virtual appointments, and screening for in-person appointments, we will be using a new telemedicine tool called Doxy.Me https://doxy.me/patients

More information regarding how to use Doxy.Me can be found here For Clients_Doxy_Check in flyer

Our admin staff are emailing all clients ~1.5d prior to your scheduled appointment – that email will include a link to your team’s Doxy.Me site. When you come to our clinic, we ask that you please wait in your car, and sign-in to your Doxy.Me waiting room. Your midwife will contact you while you are in your car to review the CORONA-19 screening questions, and arrange to bring you into the clinic.

If you are not travelling by car, you are welcome to wait inside the building but outside the clinic. We ask that you please let your midwife know where you are waiting when you check-in to Doxy.Me.

If you do not pass the screening questions, your visit will happen virtually, and a plan will be made to coordinate your next in person assessment.

We ask that wherever possible you come to your clinic appointments by yourself. The waiting room door will be locked, as our admin staff are working remotely during this time.

Home Visits
Your midwife will still call to let you know that they are en route to assess you at home. Soon after, they will also send you a text message with a link to the Doxy.Me waiting room for your on-call team. Before they enter your home, they will use Doxy.Me to ask you screening questions, and also to have a conversation about some of the regular home-visit questions regarding feeding, your healing, any baby-related questions, etc. They will then come into your home and do the physical checks required for you and baby (blood pressure, temperatures, weighing, etc). They will be spending much less time physically in your home in order to minimize your risk of exposure. We ask that wherever possible the midwife sees you and your baby in a room without any other family members/visitors present.

Mental Health
We know the current situation is causing high levels of anxiety for many of us, as we worry about our own health and that of our loved ones. Please let your midwives know if your mental health is suffering, there are many self-directed and virtual resources we can help connect you with.