Sweet Sixteen

Sixteen years ago, on December 27th, the first baby was born with the help of midwives from The Midwives Clinic of East York-Don Mills. He surprised everyone, especially his parents, by being born 4 weeks early. This young couple had recently come to Canada as refugees. Their friends, who were clients of the clinic, brought them along to one of their appointments and asked if we could see them as well. Two weeks later he would be the first TMC birth.

Now, sixteen years later, this baby is on the cusp of adulthood. He has probably delighted and surprised his parents in many more ways over the past 16 years. Our clinic has also seen many changes and surprises as well. The autumn of 2002 were busy months for Deborah Bonser, Rosemary McVey and Esther Willms. We were seeing clients temporarily at the Flemington Neighbourhood Office as we planned renovations for our clinic space at 1 Leaside Park Dr. We would soon hire our first administrator, Alnisha Hussain. Then, in 2003, Tracy Gerster joined us and Sarah Leslie was hired as our first new registrant. With the addition of Sarilyn Zimmerman there were 6 midwives working for The Midwives Clinic of East York-Don Mills by the end of 2003. Since then we have had the honour and privilege of delivering thousands of babies. We have worked with many families new to Canada far from family and friends, delighted in families joy and supported families who have experience loss and grief.

Now in 2018 we have 19 midwives working at our clinic. We have a dynamic and inspiring group of young midwives who are working with us who will continue to grow and strengthen midwifery in Ontario. There is still lots of work to do as we continue to provide services accessible to all, support the choices of the families we work with, as well as fight for fairness and pay equity for midwives. Our space at 1 Leaside Prk Dr. has been expanded three times but still we are growing out of this space.

We thank all of you who have allowed us to be part of your births. We have been humbled and inspired by your strength, resilience and delighted by your babies. And to the first TMC baby, Happy Sweet Sixteen!!