Pauktuutit backs call to create “culturally-safe” care for aboriginal women

Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, one of five national aboriginal organizations behind a new joint policy statement on the sexual and reproductive health rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and youth, says Inuit women need more culturally-adapted health programs in areas such as counselling, contraception and traditional midwifery.

“In Canada, aboriginal women experience a disproportionately high rate of adverse health outcomes, such as STIs, complications in pregnancy and delivery, teenage pregnancies, and sexual violence,” said Dr. Don Wilson, co-chair of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada’s Aboriginal Health Initiative Committee, which helped produce the statement.

“To address this, we need to reduce inequities in the availability and accessibility of sexual and reproductive services.”

Providing culturally-safe care involves adapting practices and programs to suit the particular needs of aboriginal women, the statement said.

“Sexual and reproductive rights provide the framework within which sexual and reproductive health and well-being can be achieved,” the statement said.

This statement, “Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Realities and Access to Services for First Nations, Inuit and Métis People in Canada,” published in the June issue of the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, calls for the need for health-care providers, organizations, and political and community leaders across Canada to:

• advocate awareness of sexual and reproductive health rights;

• advise the Government of Canada to act on and implement the recommendations of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

• develop cultural competence among health-care providers;

• support the development of a federal-provincial-territorial aboriginal birthing strategy,

• promote awareness and understanding of Non-Insured Health Benefits for First Nations and Inuit among health-care providers;

• promote changes to NIHB policies to increase access to emergency and alternative contraceptives, counselling on sexual and mental health, and midwifery; and,

• to encourage a return of traditional birthing to communities.