Indigenous Birth Support and Reproductive Health: Books

In the 1930s, anthropologist Hilger traveled to nine reservations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan to record traditional Chippewa methods of raising children. Her study captures the essential details of Chippewa child life and provides a comprehensive overview of a fascinating culture.

Traditional midwifery, culture, customs, understandings, and meanings surrounding pregnancy and birth are grounded in distinct epistemologies and worldviews that have sustained Indigenous women and their families since time immemorial. Years of colonization, however, have impacted the degree to which women have choice in the place and ways they carry and deliver their babies. As nations such as Canada became colonized, traditional gender roles were seen as an impediment. The forced rearrangement of these gender roles was highly disruptive to family structures. Indigenous women quickly lost their social and legal status as being dependent on fathers and then husbands. The traditional structures of communities became replaced with colonially informed governance, which reinforced patriarchy and paternalism. The authors in this book carefully consider these historic interactions and their impacts on Indigenous women's experiences. As the first section of the book describes, pregnancy is a time when women reflect on their bodies as a space for the development of life. Foods prepared and consumed, ceremony and other activities engaged in are no longer a focus solely for the mother, but also for the child she is carrying. Authors from a variety of places and perspectives thoughtfully express the historical along with contemporary forces positively and negatively impacting prenatal behaviours and traditional practices. Place and culture in relation to birth are explored in the second half of the book from locations in Canada such as Manitoba, Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and Aotearoa. The reclaiming and revitalization of birthing practices along with rejuvenating forms of traditional knowledge form the foundation for exploration into these experiences from a political perspective. It is an important part of decolonization to acknowledge policies such as birth evacuation as being grounded in systemic racism. The act of returning birth to communities and revitalizing Indigenous prenatal practices are affirmation of sustained resilience and strength, instead of a one-sided process of reconciliation.

A rare and inspiring guide to the health and well-being of Aboriginal women and their communities.The process of "digging up medicines" - of rediscovering the stories of the past - serves as a powerful healing force in the decolonization and recovery of Aboriginal communities. In Life Stages and Native Women, Kim Anderson shares the teachings of fourteen elders from the Canadian prairies and Ontario to illustrate how different life stages were experienced by Metis, Cree, and Anishinaabe girls and women during the mid-twentieth century. These elders relate stories about their own lives, the experiences of girls and women of their childhood communities, and customs related to pregnancy, birth, post-natal care, infant and child care, puberty rites, gender and age-specific work roles, the distinct roles of post-menopausal women, and women's roles in managing death. Through these teachings, we learn how evolving responsibilities from infancy to adulthood shaped women's identities and place within Indigenous society, and were integral to the health and well-being of their communities. By understanding how healthy communities were created in the past, Anderson explains how this traditional knowledge can be applied toward rebuilding healthy Indigenous communities today.

The voices of Indigenous women world-wide have long been silenced by colonial oppression and institutions of patriarchal dominance. Recent generations of powerful Indigenous women have begun speaking out so that their positions of respect within their families and communities might be reclaimed. The book explores issues surrounding and impacting Indigenous mothering, family and community in a variety of contexts internationally. The book addresses diverse subjects, including child welfare, Indigenous mothering in curriculum, mothers and traditional foods, intergenerational mothering in the wake of residential schooling, mothering and HIV, urban Indigenous mothering, mothers working the sex trade, adoptive and other mothers, Indigenous midwifery, and more. In addressing these diverse subjects and peoples living in North America, Central America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Philippines and Oceania, the authors provide a forum to understand the shared interests of Indigenous women across the globe.

Western theory and practice are over-represented in child welfare services for Indigenous peoples, not the other way around. Contributors to this collection invert the long-held, colonial relationship between Indigenous peoples and systems of child welfare in Canada. By understanding the problem as the prevalence of the Western universe in child welfare services rather than Indigenous peoples, efforts to understand and support Indigenous children and families are fundamentally transformed. Child welfare for Indigenous peoples must be informed and guided by Indigenous practices and understandings. Privileging the iyiniw (First people, people of the land) universe leads to reinvigorating traditional knowledges, practices and ceremonies related to children and families that have existed for centuries. The chapters of ohpikinâwasowin/Growing a Child describe wisdom-seeking journeys and service-provision changes that occurred in Treaty 6, Treaty 7, and Treaty 8 territory on Turtle Island. Many of the teachings are nehiyaw (Cree) and some are from the Blackfoot people. Taken together, this collection forms a whole related to the Turtle Lodge Teachings, which expresses nehiyaw stages of development, and works to undo the colonial trappings of Canada's current child welfare system.

Patrisia Gonzales addresses "Red Medicine" as a system of healing that includes birthing practices, dreaming, and purification rites to re-establish personal and social equilibrium. The book explores Indigenous medicine across North America, with a special emphasis on how Indigenous knowledge has endured and persisted among peoples with a legacy to Mexico. Gonzales combines her lived experience in "Red Medicine" as an herbalist and traditional birth attendant ith in-depth research into oral traditions, storytelling, and the meanings of symbols to uncover how Indigenous knowledge endures over time. And she shows how this knowledge is now being reclaimed by Chicanos, Mexican Americans and Mexican Indigenous peoples. For Gonzales, a central guiding force in Red Medicine is the principal of regeneration as it is manifested in Spiderwoman. Dating to Pre-Columbian times, the Mesoamerican Weaver/Spiderwoman--the guardian of birth, medicine, and purification rites such as the Nahua sweat bath--exemplifies the interconnected process of rebalancing that transpires throughout life in mental, spiritual and physical manifestations. Gonzales also explains how dreaming is a form of diagnosing in traditional Indigenous medicine and how Indigenous concepts of the body provide insight into healing various kinds of trauma. Gonzales links pre-Columbian thought to contemporary healing practices by examining ancient symbols and their relation to current curative knowledges among Indigenous peoples. "Red Medicine" suggests that Indigenous healing systems can usefully point contemporary people back to ancestral teachings and help them reconnect to the dynamics of the natural world. "

Welcome! This workbook is to help you start the path of restoring midwifery and birth to your community or Nation. It is designed to help you understand and work with some of the issues that are likely to arise and to provide ideas and space for your own reflections. This workbook was inspired by the many communities and Nations striving to restore Indigenous midwifery and birth.

We hope this workbook helps you to place your local context within the bigger picture and that you can strategize your approach to restoring midwifery and birth. Every community and Nation have a unique process for returning birth and midwifery, and each midwife has their own path. There is also much that is shared among communities and Nations doing this work. We invite you to use this workbook in any way that is supportive and helpful, and to reach out to NACM as you feel the need.

In this revolutionary volume, as part of their overall effort to advocate for the rights of Aboriginal women, D. Memee LavellHarvard and Jeannette Corbiere Lavell have brought together a multitude of voices to speak on the issues facing Aboriginal mothers in contemporary society. Beginning with an examination of the experience of childbirth-the initiation into motherhood-the contributing authors illustrate its potential as a source of empowerment and revitalization for our nations. Through their own unique perspectives, the women bring us to an understanding of the variety of Aboriginal mothering practices, the impacts of colonization and government legislation on Aboriginal mothers, and literary representations of Aboriginal mothering. Together, these women have worked to reveal not only the connection between the longstanding historical oppression experienced by Aboriginal women and the dire contemporary circumstances of many Aboriginal communities, but also the power of Aboriginal mothers to revitalize and transform our communities. They are truly the givers of new life.

Praise for the previous edition: "...An outstanding handbook. It will be a familiar volume on most midwifery bookshelves, providing an excellent guide to midwifery focused care of both woman and child in the birthing setting." - Nursing Times Online Providing a practical and comprehensive guide to midwifery care, The Midwife's Labour and Birth Handbook continues to promote best practice and a safe, satisfying birthing experience with a focus on women-centred care. Covering all aspects of care during labour and birth, from obstetric emergencies to the practicalities of perineal repair (including left-hand suturing), the fourth edition has been fully revised and updated to include: Full colour photographs of kneeling extended breech and footling breech births New water birth and breech water birth photographs Female genital mutilation Sepsis Group B streptococcus Care of the woman with diabetes /Neonatal hypoglycaemia Mental health Seeding/microbirthing It also addresses important issues such as: Why are the numbers of UK women giving birth in stirrups RISING rather than falling? Why are so few preterm babies given bedside resuscitation with the cord intact? Would the creation of midwife breech practitioners/specialists enable more women to choose vaginal breech birth and is breech water birth safe? What is the legal position for women who choose to free birth - and their birth partners? Why are midwives challenging the OASI care bundle? Incorporating research, evidence and anecdotal observations, The Midwife's Labour and Birth Handbook remains an essential resource for both student midwives and experienced practising midwives.