The Manitoba Minister of Families pointed to a significant drop in the number of newborns seized from social services after the province put an end to the controversial birth signal practice, but government figures show that hundreds of babies are still cared for each year.
“We have reduced childbirth concerns by 75 percent since the policy was implemented,” Rochelle Squires said during a question period on Tuesday.
Data obtained from The Canadian Press through requests for freedom of information show that the average baby is still seized in Manitoba almost every day.
Birth signals were used to inform hospitals and child protection agencies that a more in-depth assessment was needed before the newborn was discharged to a parent considered high risk.
The province stopped the practice in 2020 after a review found that it discouraged pregnant women and their families from seeking prenatal support.
The province clarified the minister’s figures later in the week. It says there is a reduction in detention for newborns, but this is not what the minister reports. In 2020-2021, 101 babies under the age of three were captured, a 46% reduction from 186 newborns last year.
The province said the minister included children under the age of one who had been raised.
The data received from the news agency show that there is a gradual reduction in arrests related to babies under one year, but this does not correspond to what the minister said.
In 2019, 496 babies were detained. That dropped to 386 babies the following year, when birth signals ended. 339 people were detained last year.
This is a decrease of 32% compared to the year before and after the cessation of birth signals.
The cabinet further clarified that threats to newborns have fallen by 65 percent since progressive conservatives took office in 2016. And, according to an email, a 75 percent reduction is expected this year.
“These are staggering many babies who have been detained,” said Cora Morgan, a defender of the first-nation family of the Manitoba Chiefs of Assembly.
Morgan said stopping the birth signals was the right move.
The practice has long been criticized by local leaders, who say birth signals are set against families. The final report of the National Investigation into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls said the signals were “racist and discriminatory and a gross violation of the rights of the child, mother and community.”
There are about 10,000 children in Manitoba who care for them, and about 90 percent are locals.
Morgan said it was clear that the cessation of birth signals had not stopped the babies from being confiscated. She said mothers still tell her they are afraid of receiving prenatal support and she hears about babies and children being caught regularly.
“I still believe they are not mothers yet.
The province needs to do more to support pregnant or newborns to keep families together, Morgan said.
Squires told the legislature that “there is a lot of damage done decades ago” in terms of children’s welfare. She said all levels of government must move forward together.
Bernadette Smith, a member of the opposition NDP legislature, said babies should not be seized unless there is a threat to the child.
“We do more harm than good by keeping children,” she said.
Smith agrees that stopping birth signals is a good solution. But, she said, that meant the number of babies being cared for should have been closer to zero.
A bill introduced by Smith in 2018 amended the province’s detention laws so that no child can be detained solely because of poverty. Smith explained that when she was a teenager, she was placed in care because her mother could not afford the support she needed to help her.
With more than 300 babies seized each year, it is clear that there are other families in need, she said.
“Mothers need to receive support before, during and after they have children.”
This Canadian Press report was first published on June 4, 2022.
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