About the Advice Line
The Maternity and Babies Advice Line provides services to expectant mothers and new parents, guardians or caregivers of newborn babies in rural and remote First Nations communities in BC. Family members and healthcare providers can also receive support.
Doctors in the service provide advice on urgent and non-urgent maternal and child health topics. Topics can include pregnancy, birth and newborn care. The doctors can also arrange referrals to obstetricians or pediatricians, if needed.
The advice line service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week via Zoom video conferencing. There are no appointment wait times.
The Maternity and Babies Advice Line is a partnership between the First Nations Health Authority and the Rural Coordination Centre of BC. As with other FNHA services, the service is founded on the principles and practices of cultural safety and humility.
How to Access the Advice Line
If you want to access the advice line, contact your local healthcare provider. Your provider could be your doctor, nurse, community health worker, midwife, doula or traditional healer.
Your provider will set up an appointment with the advice line doctor and attend the appointment with you. This approach helps the advice line doctors provide the most appropriate care in coordination with the support available in your community.
For Healthcare Providers
To access the service, go to the MaBAL (Maternity and Babies Advice Line) page on Rural Coordination Centre of BC and follow the instructions in “How to access MaBAL”.
Providers who have signed up for a Zoom account with the Rural Coordination Centre of BC, will see the Maternity and Babies Advice Line in their contact list (listed as MaBAL).
Podcast
Listen to the Maternity and Babies Advice line podcast. (SoundCloud)
