In My Mother's House

In November, I attended the Midwives Alliance of North America's 2011 Conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The conference theme this year was —North American Midwifery: Beyond Boundaries—and this speaks to value we place on diversity and multiculturalism, and also on shared knowledge, skills, stories, and strategies. Midwives, students, maternity care professionals, and midwifery supporters from across North America attended to receive information and inspiration for achieving many of our collective goals.  One of the speakers at this year's MANA conference was Naoli Vinaver Lopez and her presentation was entitled On Curiosity and Love: The Ins and Outs of Birth

Naolí Vinaver is a Mexican midwife who combines traditional birth practices with a profound interest in and respect for the physiology of natural birth. She has been attending both waterbirths and births in traditional styles and positions since 1990. Naolí has enjoyed three pregnancies and homebirths of her own in the company of her family. She has written and illustrated children’s books about life, pregnancy and birth, produced birth videos for education, and devoted many years to teaching midwifery both in her home in Mexico as well as around the world while continuing her homebirth practice in both rural and urban Veracruz State, Mexico. She is currently living in Brazil, from where she teaches and travels and is writing a birth book and articles for midwifery magazines. 

2011 was a monumental year for professional midwifery in Mexico. A new law passed the Mexican Senate 99 to 0, recognizing midwifery as a profession, and including professional midwives in the public health sector. With Seguro Popular, the universal health care coverage, women can use third-party reimbursement to get free midwifery services at CASA (Center for the Adolescents of San Miguel de Allende) in Guanajuato. A recent study by Robbie E. Davis Floyd at the University of Texas, Austin, showed that services offered at CASA have a lower incidence of maternal and infant mortality than their obstetric counterparts. However, CASA is unique in Mexico and this video emphasizes the need for humanized birth across Mexico, to care for the health of women and their babies 

In this following video, Anne Wilson, President of the Canadian Association of Midwives, gives her views on the Canadian maternity system. This was recorded at the CAM/MANA/ACNM joint conference November 2011. 

While Canadians are among some of the healthiest people in the world, many Canadian Aboriginal people cannot say the same. For various reasons, Aboriginal people do not enjoy the same health status as their peers. In fact, Aboriginal people are over-represented in many negative health statistics. For example, rates of diabetes are three times higher in First Nations and Inuit populations, and rates of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, and arthritis/ rheumatism are all higher than Canadian rates (First Nations and Inuit Regional Health Survey, 1999; Kinnon, 2002).  Sexually transmitted infections, particularly HIV/AIDS, is a growing concern with Aboriginal people representing 15 per cent of new cases of HIV/AIDS (Health Canada, 2000a). Also of concern is the maternal and child health of Aboriginal populations.  It is reported that Aboriginal women experience perinatal and still birth rates that are twice the national average and 2.5 times greater in Inuit communities