Provincial funding provides midwives for Indigenous health centre in Sudbury

The Ontario government has announced the latest recipient of its funding to establish Aboriginal midwifery programs in the province, and now that initiative has come to Sudbury.

Provincial funding will allow theShkagamikKwa Health Centre in the city to hire two registered midwives.

The three year investment will mean up to 40 Indigenous women will be able to access culturally appropriate child and maternity care, said executive director AngelaRecollet.

"It's really about that cultural care and treatment. It's about building relationships and so if mothers and fathers and families choose midwifery practice then they can do that in a culturally safe way, free of judgement anddiscriminationwithin theShkagamikKwa health centre," said Recollet.

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One of the midwives hired on at the health centre is Naomi Wolf.

She said this program allows expectant mothers to incorporate their Indigenous culture into their at-home birthing plans.

"The integrity of where those traditions and values and beliefs come from and supporting women to bring their babies into the world in a good way," she said.

"The way that we did a long time ago, with a real genuine understanding of where that comes will make a difference in what that translates into for their births."

Other Aboriginal midwifery programs are also being created in Powassan and four other communities in Ontario.