Project 458562

Currently, First Nations people in Canada are subjected to evacuation birth policy, through the First Nation Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB). Under this policy, federally employed nursing personnel at FNIHB nursing stations arrange transport at 36 weeks' gestation for First Nations people resulting in the relocation of birth outside of their communities. For my doctoral research, I will explore the influence of dominate culture in health institutions within the federal (FNIHB) and Ontario health systems on the provision of maternity care provided to First Nations people evacuated out of their communities to give birth. I will examine documentary data, including organizational and institutional documents, from provincial hospitals and the Ontario health system, as well as FNIHB nursing stations located in Ontario pertaining to protocols and policies around care during evacuation for birth and care for Indigenous Peoples. I will interview between 50-64 maternity care providers, including midwives, physicians, nurses, and birth support workers, who have worked at an institution within the Ontario health system or at FNIHB nursing stations and have had cared for First Nations people evacuated out of their community for birth. Data will be analyzed firstly to understand how the beliefs held by individuals and teams of maternity care providers, healthcare institutions, and health systems create a culture surrounding maternity care within Ontario and secondly to understand how this culture's influence on care provided within the Ontario health system and FNIHB to First Nations people evacuated out of their communities to give birth. Anti-oppressive theory, a framework that examines oppression with the intention to combat it, is used to understand care provider's beliefs influencing oppressive care. The results of this study will demonstrate where changes within maternity culture need to be made to provide anti-oppressive birth care to First Nations peoples.