Indigenous graduates hope to make a difference in birth support
With Christine Theoret’s second birth, having someone there to support her made all the difference. A nurse went out of her way to attend to Theoret’s personal needs and affirm that she was doing a great job during labour.
“The nurse that I had was kind of doing the doula role, and I appreciated that from her,” Theoret said. “So that’s what I want to do for other women.”
Theoret is a graduate of a first-of-its-kind Indigenous Birth Support Worker program delivered by the Gabriel Dumont Institute.
As the graduates received their certificates and said a few words Friday at the Cave Restaurant, drawing on their own childbirth experiences as motivation was a common theme.
The six-week program, a partnership between GDI and the SHA, provides students with education and training to provide personalized, culturally secure support and resources.
More generally, support workers are there to help mothers feel comfortable.
Graduate Keara Laverty went into the program on the recommendation of her mother. At the time, she didn’t know if the role was right for her, but now she can’t wait to get back to work.
“Being a doula, helping out the mothers that need that support and just being there for them is such a great way of giving back when they come and don’t have anything,” Laverty said. “I’m just so excited to start.”
The program comes two years after a review of involuntary sterilization of Indigenous women at Royal University Hospital that revealed patients at the hospital were pressured to undergo sterilization procedures in 2010.
It was created to help address the calls to action prepared after that review by Indigenous elders and community leaders in the province.
Co-ordinators aim to have support workers at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital this winter as full-time staff.
“This is kind of the first time that we’ll have a program like this, that’s directly in hospital,” said SHA director of maternal services and children’s intensive care Leanne Smith. “The birth support works will be part of our staff and a really big part of the team.”
Theoret said the nurses she worked with during her practicum were happy to have her there — the mothers were, too.
“The first woman thanked me for being there, she had her husband there but she appreciated my added support,” Laverty said. “So I was like, ‘Wow, she’s going to have a great birth and I got to be a part of that.’
“I love that feeling, it is such a beautiful thing. And it’s where I need to be.”