Please join the Midwives Association Aboriginal Committee of the Midwives Association of British Columbia as we share in an interactive and dynamic discussion regarding the important work that midwives and doulas carry out within their communities. This session will focus specifically on the positive impact that re-shifting the childbirth culture has had on outcomes for maternal-infant health and explore bringing birth back to communities. Our presenters will also discuss various conventional and traditional educational pathways that currently exist for youth interested in these professions. The session will begin with a short PowerPoint presentation and follow with a discussion lead by an Aboriginal Doula and aspiring Midwife, an Aboriginal Midwifery student and a newly graduated Midwife serving a northern and remote community in B.C.
All are welcome to attend and participate in this FREE live videoconference and computer webinar session. We especially encourage Aboriginal youth who are currently in high school and thinking about future career choices!
Date: Wednesday, October 30th, 2013
Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Where: Participate live via videoconference OR computer webinar. Want to know the difference between videoconference and computer webinar? Click here to find out.
About the Presenters
Misty Wasyluk
Misty has primarily lived in central and northwestern Canada. She relocated to Ontario in 2001 to obtain her Bachelor of Health Sciences in Midwifery Degree from Laurentian University in Sudbury. She practiced in southern Ontario for a number of years and then moved to the Fraser Valley to practice midwifery for two years. It was here that her Sequoia was born. Her family has since relocated to Victoria where they look forward to settling down in the community.
Marijke de Zwager
Marijke acknowledges that as a first generation Canadian she is living on unceded territory. Marijke’s parents immigrated from the Netherlands and England in the 1970s and settled in Victoria, where Marijke was born and raised. Marijke studied midwifery at UBC and works as a Registered Midwife serving a diverse population of families in East Vancouver. Marijke co-chairs the Midwives Association Aboriginal Committee (MAAC), which strives to increase access to midwifery care for aboriginal families in BC and support aboriginal women pursuing midwifery as a career. Marijke has the had the honour and privilege of catching babies in various parts of British Columbia, Nunavut, Zambia and Haiti and is passionate about everything to do with pregnancy, birth and babies!
Lauren Redman
Lauren Redman is a fouth-year midwifery student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) of Métis descent. She came to midwifery wanting to be of service in the field of women’s health. After attending a friend’s birth, she knew that she had found her path. Through volunteering as a doula, she found that working with diverse women and their families solidified her desire to be a midwife. Prior to entering UBC’s midwifery program she completed a bachelor’s degree at UBC in Women’s and Gender Studies in which she focused on midwifery, women’s health and Aboriginal health. During this time she worked at UBC, both at the Institute for Aboriginal Health and at Aboriginal Student Affairs. She has alsotrained in hatha yoga and prenatal yoga.
Deborah Peters
Deborah Peters is from Ts’kw’aylaxw Indian band located outside of Lillooet, BC. She works part-time with elders as well as a doula for all First Nations communities surrounding Lillooet. She is working on getting her pre-requisites to attend school to become an Aboriginal midwife for her communities.
Shannon Greenwood, RM
Shannon Greenwood is a Registered Midwife who graduated from the UBC midwifery program last spring. She is a mother of three and lives on Haida Gwaii. For the majority of her New Registrants period she has been working with the South Community Birth Program in Vancouver, which has provided her with solid mentorship, diverse clientele and a high volume of experience. She is now starting a practice on Haida Gwaii with the goal of integrating midwifery directly into the programming at the Health Centre where she works in Old Masset. Shannon believes that there are challenges to overcome due to remote location and a low-volume setting, but she believes that the model her team is working towards will increase access to care for women and provide sustainable community-based midwifery care.
Resources
These videos were shown during the presentation.
- Aboriginal Midwives
- Tripartite Aboriginal Doula Initiative Perinatal Services BC
- Midwifery Education
PowerPoint
- Click here to download a PDF copy of the presentation that was shown at today’s session.
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