By Neil Armstrong
 |
| Photo contributed Dr. Karline Wilson-Mitchell, Director of the School of Midwifery, Ryerson University |
A website to support a groundbreaking research project to uncover the history of racialized midwives in Canada was recently launched in Toronto.
The virtual event showcased the Colour of Birth website --
https://www.ryerson.ca/colour-of-birth/ -- which is a part of the Canadian Midwives of Colour History Project (CMOCHP), initiated in the fall of 2019 by Dr. Karline Wilson-Mitchell, a midwife, associate professor and director of the School of Midwifery at Ryerson University.
The project is motivated by the desires of racialized midwifery students to know the history of racialized midwives in Canada.
“The purpose of the website is to keep the public abreast of the work we
are doing as we continue to unearth narratives of racialized midwives.
There is a dearth in the current scholarship and besides the archival
research we are conducting, our hope is that the website will inspire people
to contact us and provide us with information and spread the word about our
project,” says co-investigator Dr. Karen C. Flynn, associate professor in the Departments of Gender and Women's Studies and African-American Studies and associate chair in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
The revelation of these stories and representations of midwives of colour in the historical text could empower racialized students, inform practice and midwifery curriculum, notes Wilson-Mitchell who has been practicing midwifery since 1992 and has been teaching in the Ryerson Midwifery Education Program since 2008.
“The process of mining for facts and truth, unveils amazing stories of resilience and advocacy in Canada's earliest racialized immigrant and refugee communities. The project is consequently an act of social justice or healing for the student researchers,” says the professor who is passionate about reproductive justice that informs midwifery education, practice and global partnerships.
Since 1992, her clinical work grew from the U.S. (urban and rural) to Canada (Ontario, remote Quebec) and then to midwifery education and leadership building in the Global South (Jamaica, Tanzania, Zambia, Burundi, South Sudan).
Her scholarship explores the skills and infrastructure necessary to diversify the midwifery workforce and to explore strategies that facilitate equitable and inclusive work environments for midwives and vulnerable populations.
Her goal is to promote resilience and sagacity in vulnerable midwifery students.
Joining Dr. Wilson-Mitchell and Dr. Flynn to execute the project are collaborators: Cyrus Sundar Singh of the Communication and Culture Department at Ryerson University, Dr. May Friedman of the School of Social Work at Ryerson, Dr. Megan Davies of Social Science, York University, and Dr. Margaret MacDonald of Anthropology, York University.
“I'm excited to be involved in this project. In my book, Moving Beyond
Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora,
most of the nurses I interviewed were also midwives. They were unable to
practice due to a prohibition against midwifery in Canada. This project
builds on the work that I have already done,” says Dr. Flynn.
In their application to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the federal research funding agency, for a grant for the project, which was approved, the team notes that midwives of colour in Canadian settler communities of the nineteenth to mid-twentieth century are not represented in the historical record.
“Many of these midwives were enslaved African refugees and indentured worker immigrants, and our goal is to trace and examine their histories. CHOCHP’s objective is to document and analyse the history of racialized midwives in Canada and their roles in the communities they served.”
The first phase of this work, a pilot study for which they sought support, focuses on Black midwives in Ontario and Nova Scotia between 1800 and 1970.
They hypothesize that a number of factors contributed to the erasure of Black midwives such as de facto segregation, which might have impacted the ability to train and practice in facilities.
“Once birth moved from homes into hospitals, Black families were unable to retain their midwives, stripping communities of their cultural practices. This also disrupted the midwives’ traditional role as keepers of healing knowledge.”
 |
| Photo contributed Dr. Karen Flynn, Associate Professor, Departments of Gender |
Their method of rediscovering this lost history will be to compile relevant genealogical and census data, conduct research at local and provincial museums and archives, and interview seniors who witnessed or hold stories of midwifery care by Black midwives.
They plan to initiate and complete the pilot study by undertaking additional activities such as, “identify community partners and knowledge holders and build relationships with them.”
Also in the pipeline are plans for a multimedia communication platform to disseminate their research to the public, midwifery community, educators and students.
“The paucity of historical research on Black midwives motivates the project. Present-day Black midwives and students lament the lack of documented history. This epistemological lacuna further disenfranchises Black health care providers, and childbearing people in Canada.
“The project both draws and builds on studies of racialized communities. In this respect, the rationale for this study is the absence of documented histories of midwifery and childbirth that can also inform and positively disrupt the current narrow constellation of settler midwifery,” the application states.
As an example, the team notes that in Canada’s current midwifery landscape, major Canadian cities are increasingly diverse, for example, 49.8% of Torontonians identify as racialized and 48.61% as immigrants; yet white women remain the primary subjects of midwifery scholarship and practice.
“Using critical anti-oppressive and Black Canadian feminist analyses that consider the intersection of race, class, gender, nation, and age, CMOCHP places midwives of colour and their clients at the center of analysis, where we take seriously their knowledge, practices, values, experiences, and perceptions.
“We are attentive to birth attendants, birth customs and beliefs. Moreover, we interrogate questions of legitimacy as it relates to Black midwives’ credentials and access to health resources for their communities,” says the team, noting that also of significance are the reports by Black immigrants of their dissatisfaction with the childbearing experience.
The research team underscores how, despite the intersecting oppressions that Black midwives face, they emerge as agents of change who find creative ways to resist oppression.
They note that this groundbreaking project is both timely and relevant. It incorporates the tenets of interprofessional learning where student research assistants and faculty of multiple disciplines will learn with, from and about each other.
“It not only fills a gap in the midwifery scholarship and makes visible the contributions of racialized midwives; the project will also empower students and practitioners of colour in all disciplines,” notes the grant application.
It says the most significant knowledge users will be midwifery students and faculty across Canada since findings will inform midwifery curriculum.
The team also noted that heritage foundations and cultural museums will use the findings and video files to support their collections.
They said the living digital art gallery that will be a long-term outcome of this project will provide knowledge for education of the public, content for studies in immigration and settlement, content for Canadian history curriculum, and information on that might empower members of Canada’s diverse communities.
“This project creates space for the refinement of storytelling and builds credibility for a method that is highly valued by many racialized communities, thereby promoting empowerment and legitimacy,” they noted.
No comments:
Post a Comment