A formal policy is in the works for businesses to provide the option of out-of-hospital birthing, following Immigration approval for a local group to bring midwives to the Island.The matter is being discussed between the Department of Health, and the Bermuda Integrative Health Cooperative.Acting Chief Medical Officer Cheryl Peek-Ball, who serves on the Bermuda Medical Council, sought to clarify the BMC’s position on a procedure that has generated a lot of controversy.While the BMC has offered no objection to the Cooperative obtaining work permits for midwives from overseas to assist with out-of-hospital births in the short-term, a long-term protocol has yet to be drafted.“I think we’re just beginning anew, trying to craft some policy that will be good for the future,” Dr Peek-Ball said.She cautioned that a recent story in The Royal Gazette had given the impression that the BMC had given wholehearted support for the practice.“The BMC maintains the opinion that work permits for healthcare professionals should be held by similarly qualified healthcare professionals, rather than lay persons.“The reason for this relates to assurance that the supervision and oversight of the work of the professional would be carried out by an individual professionally qualified to do so.”However, Dr Peek-Ball said the Cooperative had approached the BMC to discuss setting up a long-term policy.The group currently has work permits for US midwives to serve couples on the Island who wish to give birth in the location of their choice.Explained Cooperative director Eugene Dean: “The hope for the BMC now is for further dialogue to take place, for a policy that will work for our business and for any other.”He added: “The demand is there, and it has consistently grown.”The BMC, which is tasked with overseeing the Island’s professional standards in medicine, has yet to meet and formally consider a request for a specific home-birth policy.“They’re just as eager as we are to see something long-term put in place,” Mr Dean said.The hope among members of the Hamilton-based Cooperative is for policy discussions to start before the year’s end.Fellow director Sophia Cannonier said the group had been flooded with calls in recent weeks.Calls ranged from “the public telling us their birth stories, to young Bermudians studying nursing who also want to learn about midwifery”.Aside from getting guidelines established for midwives, Ms Cannonier said a pressing issue was that “many couple would like to have their births covered by their insurance”.Useful website: www.healthcoop.net.