Champion for healthcare options for pregnant women in British Columbia, Ms. Elaine Carty was instrumental in bringing midwifery into the mainstream and providing pregnant women with disabilities supportive delivery and postnatal care.

Ms. Carty’s pioneering practice, research, and advocacy for midwifery overcame strong opposition and made possible the formal education program which created and expanded professional midwifery in the province.

Beginning in the late 1970s, she worked closely with forward-thinking obstetricians and family physicians on pilot projects demonstrating safe midwifery practice in action. She went on to conduct clinical research on innovative approaches to care during childbirth, build alliances across hospital and community care sectors, and steadfastly erode the structural and attitudinal barriers to legitimizing midwifery. In 2002, she established B.C.’s founding midwifery education program within the Department of Family Practice of UBC’s Faculty of Medicine. In short, her leadership was instrumental in spreading midwifery services across the province.

The province now has almost 300 registered midwives. Almost twenty-five per cent of B.C. births are midwife assisted and the growth of midwifery is helping to cover the gap resulting from family physicians withdrawing from obstetrical practice.

Ms. Carty received the Award of Excellence in Nursing from the Registered Nurses’ Association of BC in 1993 and the Killam Prize for teaching excellence from UBC in 1997. In 2005, the College of Midwives of British Columbia awarded her its inaugural Life Membership for her pioneering efforts. In 2013, McMaster University acknowledged her outstanding contribution to the professionalization of midwifery in Canada by granting her an honorary Doctor of Science. She was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2017.