Title: Arte de la Partería Indígena: Resistencias, desafíos y continuidades
Speaker: Tania Pariona Tarqui
Facilitator: Paloma Terra
Los objetivos de este mapeo son: identificar organizaciones de parteras indígenas, además de delinear la situación en la que se encuentran y las experiencias que se han generado cada país, acorde a su contexto histórico y aspectos legales. Finalmente, indicar las buenas prácticas, recomendaciones y retos señalados por las organizaciones de parteras de cada país.
Uno de los elementos relevantes del mapeo, es las diferencias que existen entre el ejercicio de la partería y la relación con el Estado, esto de acuerdo al nivel organizativo alcanzado por los grupos de parteras y los avances legales en el reconocimiento de la misma. Por ejemplo, algunas parteras en sus países presentan un estado de sobrevivencia por el poco o nulo reconocimiento de los pueblos originarios y la partería indígena, en otros casos por su nivel de organización hay parteras indígenas que en sus países exigen autonomía al Estado.
Sin embargo, en todos los países se dan prácticas de control, desprestigio y criminalización. Esto realza la importancia de fortalecer las organizaciones de parteras y de los pueblos originarios para la construcción de propuestas desde los sistemas de salud indígenas y la articulación horizontal con los Estados.
Como parte de sus recomendaciones se destaca la necesidad de fortalecer el tejido organizativo entre las parteras tanto a nivel nacional como en la región, el politizar la lucha por el respeto a las parteras y todas las mujeres como sujetos de derechos para que puedan tomar decisiones informadas sobre su cuerpo, su maternidad y la atención del parto desde su propia tradición y la necesidad del cuidado de las abuelas parteras que viven en situaciones vulnerables como garante de la continuidad generacional para el cuidado de las mujeres y comunidades de los pueblos indígenas.
Recording: https://youtu.be/zuIlj3va4E4
Title: When art and science collide: towards a political philosophy of humanised birth
Speaker: Elizabeth Newnham
Facilitator: Red Miller
In this presentation I draw together the various threads of my work to propose a political philosophy of birth space and practice. I first examine how the ‘science’ (of knowledge production) affects the ‘art’ (of midwifery practice) using the example of epidural analgesia, water immersion and constructions of ‘safety’ in obstetric discourse. From this, I introduce the conceptual framework of the ‘institutional paradox’ – the framing of particular practices as safe or risky, the effects of ‘institutional momentum’, and the precarious positioning of midwives as ‘guardians of normal’ within a system that views birth as, at best, risky, at worst, pathological. I then show how the influence of this institutional paradox leads to a form of rhetorical informed consent that enables dehumanising birth practices, before using the lens of care ethics to turn to the work of humanising birth, with a focus on relationality and the concept of attentiveness.
Recording: https://youtu.be/AshmJUtO7nI
Speaker: Paloma Terra and Maria do Perpétuo Socorro da Silva Rodrigues
Facilitator: Susana Ku
This presentation will be based on the research project Midwives of the Brazilian Amazon by Paloma Terra funded by Huron University of Canada. The project uses Critical and Decolonial research methodology and did interviews with Traditional Midwives of the Brazilian upper Amazon Region. This discussion will be a joint presentation in Portuguese with Maria do Socorro who is the president of the Midwifery Association Algodão Roxo a Traditional Midwives Association of the State of Amazonas. We will discuss the place of Traditional Midwifery in the modern world and why it is important to work to preserve and strengthen it. Socorro will present in Portuguese the history of the formation of the Association and their current work and struggles. Paloma will share some of the main take aways from the research project in both English and Portuguese.
Recording: https://youtu.be/RQco_ouNrCU
Title: Wombs and Wildfires: Community Based Maternal and Newborn Health and the Climate Crisis
Speakers: Skye Wheeler and Aver Yakubu
Facilitator(s): Isabella Garti and Ayele Bali (Shadow)
Abstract:
The climate crisis is the major public health crisis of our time. Pregnant people and newborns are especially vulnerable to the fossil-fuel driven disasters undermining communities across the globe, and a growing body of science points to associations between
climate impacts including extreme heat, wildfires, other disasters, and higher rates of poor maternal health including preterm birth, low birth weight and stillbirth. The session will provide an overview of some of the best academic science and community reporting
on the intersection of climate and maternal and newborn health and recent positioning on the issue by major international organizations, including UN agencies. Skye Wheeler, from Human Rights Watch, will provide insights into extreme heat in Pakistan and other
LMICs and why research is showing additional vulnerabilities associated with physical work and care work including mothering newborns and other children. She will also talk about why extreme heat is relevant to the Black maternal health crisis in the US. Aver
Yakubu, from Nuturely, will provide a deeper dive into wildfire impacts on maternal and newborn health and recent learnings from research in Oregon state, a highly wildfire-impacted state in the US. Both will discuss current best practices and thinking, what
more we need to learn, and why community-based and culturally competent care is so crucial as part of the way forward out of this crisis towards a more sustainable future.
Recording: https://youtu.be/5MjA6sxNxOk
Title: The Midwifery Sustainability Project: a strategic priority for the Association of Ontario Midwives
Speakers: Elizabeth Brandeis and Remi Ejiwunmi
Facilitator(s): Jane Houston
Abstract:
This presentation by ‘Remi Ejiwunmi, RM MSc, Chair of the Association of Ontario Midwives’ Midwifery Sustainability Project Steering Committee, and Elizabeth Brandeis, RM MSc, Staff Lead of the Midwifery Sustainability Project, will describe the trends and conditions in Ontario midwifery that are leading to unprecedented rates of burnout and attrition from the profession. The presentation will provide a brief overview of Ontario midwifery within a publicly funded model in which midwives work mainly in community-based, midwife-led practice groups and provide choice of birthplace including home and hospital birth, and in some communities, the option of free-standing birth centres. It will then explore the current state of midwifery and situate it within an evidence-based framework of the systemic factors that act as enablers or barriers to midwifery sustainability. The presentation will include a description of the first phase of the Midwifery Sustainability Project, the focus of which has been to understand the scope of the issue of sustainability for midwives. The presenters will then describe how the project will move from research to action to address the barriers to midwifery sustainability in Ontario.
Recording: Not available
