Providing Obstetric Care to a Remote Native Population

A family-practice residency program has been involved in providing direct patient care to a number of Native communities in a remote area of Manitoba. The residents and preceptors have provided care on site in the communities, as well as being the primary referral services in the tertiary-care setting. During the 12 years of the program's evolution much experience was gained in dealing with a generally high-risk obstetric population whose care was complicated by such factors as language barriers, distance, and economic and social circumstances. The author of this article reviews the nature of the program and the issues, medical and other, that it deals with, making some reference to experience of similar populations elsewhere.