MAKING CHANGE
Diné nurse midwife honored by the UNM Native American Alumni Chapter
Nicolle L. Gonzales has dedicated her life to helping others. Through her Changing Woman Initiative, she focuses on renewing Indigenous birthing traditions and culture to ensure Native American people can get proper care and help.
This is the reason the University of New Mexico Native American Alumni Chapter honored the Diné nurse midwife for her contributions to her community.
“Half of our graduates stay in the state, and we have seen the expansion of clinical services throughout the state,” said Laura Migliaccio, an assistant professor and nurse-midwifery concentration coordinator at UNM College of Nursing. “We have also seen at times the contraction of clinical services throughout the state, but our students, our graduates are really important to maintaining the healthcare, the maternal healthcare system throughout our state.”
After years of working as a midwife in her Navajo Nation community and seeing many Native American women struggle with the Western health care system, Gonzales felt there was a more effective method to center the needs of the women and families she cared about.
“But people were just really impressed as they really like her tenacity,” Migliaccio said. “Also, she continues to find other creative ways to meet clients where they’re at, for example, a lot of our clients were not getting access to good nutrition so she helped to set up food and food services in an extended way for them.”
Gonzales’ Changing Woman Initiative is a Native American-led women’s health collective that is focused on renewing cultural birth knowledge to empower and reclaim sovereignty of Indigenous women’s medicine. The organization is committed to promoting reproductive wellness, healing through holistic approaches and to strengthening women’s bonds to family and community.
“She has been a tremendous alumni for 10 years and is an accomplished, dedicated and hardworking person,” Migliaccio said. “But she is also very warm and genuine and just lovely, a lovely human being. Things like what clinicians can they do beyond the walls of a political space and how into the community I think is really inspirational.”
One of the objectives of Changing Woman Initiative is developing a Native American reproductive wellness and birth center, which would be the first in the country.
“We know that there’s a large impact from racism and bias and inequities in our health care system,” Migliaccio said. “Nicolle is approaching it from a community-based and strength-based manner that is really invaluable and sort of innovative in her way of addressing these inequities. I think to draw attention to that and to honor that is important.”
Through Gonzales’ leadership as a midwifery director, the collective has also founded a pilot Indigenous Midwifery Student Fellowship program to help the next generation of Indigenous midwives.
“She is inspirational to others, as I brought her in to speak to our students because I think that the work she’s doing is innovative,” Migliaccio said. “We also have some other Native American students and I think for them to see what is possible, is inspiring.”
In addition to her job, Gonzales keeps contributing to the community in several ways such as serving on two birth center boards in New Mexico.
She also offers training for Indigenous birth workers in New Mexico and uses her experience and expertise as a consultant to help Native American tribes and health care organizations.