Defining and Evaluating Cultural Safety at Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto: Exploring Urban Indigenous Women’s Perspectives on Culturally Safe Maternity Care
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In recent years, Indigenous midwifery has reemerged as a vital form of maternity care in Canada. \nWith the majority of practices being situated in rural and remote areas, Seventh Generation Midwives \nToronto (SGMT) remains the only urban-based Indigenous focused midwifery practice in the country. \nLooking to develop a culturally relevant performance measurement system for the practice, SGMT \npartnered with the Well Living House (WLH) ? an Indigenous action research centre in Toronto ? to \nundertake a community-based, participatory, realist, and utilization-focused evaluation study. This thesis \nproject was nested in one of the qualitative branches of this evaluation. Semi-structured interviews were \nconducted with nine former clients of SGMT who self-identified as Indigenous to determine (1) how \nIndigenous women conceptualize cultural safety and (2) the extent to which their experiences at SGMT \naligned with these conceptualizations. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and the transcripts were \nanalyzed using collaborative, consensus-based, iterative, and decolonizing methods. Twelve core themes \nthat were grouped into four thematic pillars or containers emerged from this process. Even though the \nwomen participants were unique in their backgrounds, insights, and experiences, when taken together, \nculturally safe Indigenous midwifery care meant (1) "culturally continuous care?, (2) being able to access \nboth Indigenous knowledge and practice and practical reproductive health information, (3) being \nconnected to the community, and (4) feeling ?at home? in a health care setting. There was also \nwidespread support for SGMT as a practice; most ? although not all ? women felt that their pregnancy, \nbirthing, and reproductive needs were fully met, and that they were made to feel culturally safe. All of the \nwomen offered constructive and loving feedback for the practice, even if they had experiences that fell \nshort of their expectations. This confirms that SGMT can and does provide culturally safe care, and that \ncultural safety both has benefits and a place in the mainstream health care system. This project also sheds \nlight on the roles and responsibilities of contemporary Indigenous midwives and the ways in which they \ncan be supported. Altogether, herein lies a compelling argument for the continued support and expansion \nof urban-based Indigenous midwifery, and the application of cultural safety in a Canadian context.
Author: Mackenzie Elaine Churchill
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3180300365