The Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services Cluster Seminar Series
Responsible Conduct of Research through an Accessibility and Inclusion Lens
Presented By: Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai
About This Seminar:
Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai is the world’s first congenitally blind geneticist, and currently the Vice-President Research & International Affairs and Chief Accessibility Officer for the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), having previously served as a researcher at the University Health Network in Toronto. Dr. Sukhai is a leading expert on accessibility of graduate and postdoctoral research training in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and healthcare disciplines. Dr. Sukhai is also the Chair of the Employment Technical Committee for Accessibility Standards Canada, as well as the External Co-Chair of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Expert Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism.
This seminar will focus on Dr. Sukhai's work establishing a national framework for the accessibility and inclusivity of research methods and practices within academic and community research settings.
The Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services Cluster Seminar Series
Undocumented Refugees and Perinatal Care: Current Challenges and Lessons from Ontario Midwifery
Presented By: Manavi Handa (She/Her/Hers) RM, MHSc
About This Seminar
This presentation will focus on the challenges and barriers to perinatal care for undocumented and uninsured refugees in the Canadian context. The introduction will include an overview of issues facing undocumented immigrants and implications for perinatal health care. The Ontario midwifery model of care in relationship to these clients will be discussed with a focus on successes. Part of this will include an overview of study findings which led to expanded funding in Ontario. Finally, the presentation will provide an overview of a successful midwifery-led community-based model of care including how this model may be replicated in other areas and communities.
The Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services Cluster Seminar Series
Determinants, Consequences, and Ethics of Ineffective Decision-making in Birth
Presented By: Drs. Mimi Niles (She/Her/Hers) and Michael Rost (He/Him)
About This Seminar
Ineffective decision-making between providers and birthing people often lies at the core of negative birth experiences, is recognized as a form of mistreatment in birth and a human rights violations, is antithetical to quality care, and causes adverse psychological outcomes, ultimately affecting, i.a., parent-child-bonding, child well-being, couple relationships, likelihood of giving birth again, and accessing a birth facility for birth.
In this seminar, Dr. Niles and Dr. Rost will present their findings on providers’ attitudes towards decision-making and autonomy, clients’ experiences of declining care interventions, and postpartum psychopathologies due to ineffective decision-making, and will conclude by critically discussing ethical issues underlying ineffective decision-making in birth and how they disproportionally affect historically marginalized persons.
The Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services Cluster Seminar Series
Black Perinatal Mental Health: Social Injustice, Dismantling Disparities, and Establishing Equitable Care
Presented By: Dr. Crystal Clark (She/Her/Hers)
About This Seminar
We had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Crystal Clark’s work on "Black Perinatal Mental Health - Social Injustice, Dismantling Disparities, and Establishing Equitable Care". Dr. Crystal Clark is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She is also a scientist at Women’s College Research Institute and serves as the Associate Head of Research at Women’s College Hospital. As an adult psychiatrist, Dr. Clark specializes in mood and anxiety disorders and is internationally recognized for her expertise in the treatment of women’s mental health across the reproductive life span (i.e., menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum, infertility, trauma related to reproduction). Dr. Clark’s research aims to develop identification and prevention strategies to optimize perinatal mental healthcare for populations who are marginalized and/or have severe mental illness. Her novel research in psychopharmacology aims to establish personalized dosing algorithms that accounts for metabolic and genetic differences for pregnant and postpartum women bipolar disorder. In her efforts to increase equity she is committed to studies that characterize, develop, and increase prevention intervention strategies to address Black perinatal mental health and reduce disparities.
The Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services Cluster Seminar Series
Connecting Data and Policy for Human Rights Accountability
Presented By: Indra Lusero Esq. (They/Them)
About the Speaker
Indra Lusero Esq. (They/Them), is a Colorado licensed attorney, and founder of Elephant Circle and the Birth Rights Bar Association. Indra designed Colorado's ambitious Birth Equity bill package that passed in 2021 and has been involved in legislation to eliminate the shackling of incarcerated people during pregnancy and birth, improve midwifery and birth center regulations, and to create more humane policies for pregnant people impacted by substance use. Indra also spearheaded the creation of "Birth Rights: A resource for everyday people to defend human rights during labour and birth," and "Mobilizing the Office for Civil Rights' Authority to Address Obstetric Violence and Obstetric Racism." As a Queer, Genderqueer, Latinx parent rooted in Rocky Mountain west, Indra is attuned to the importance of people on the margins and our role in leading the dismantling of oppressive systems to build a more equitable world.
The Giving Voice to Mother's Study: Real Talk About Safe Care In Pregnancy and Childbirth
In this webinar, leaders who are transforming health care discuss concrete actions that we can all take to respond to the study findings, by learning about human rights in pregnancy and childbirth, hearing from experts on how we can transform the lived experience of perinatal services, and telling others why equity matters in pregnancy and childbirth care.
ASL Interpretation is included.
Find out more about the study and report here:
https://www.birthplacelab.org/giving-voice-to-mothers/
Video Credits
Narration: Tatyana Ali
Illustrations: Cheyenne Varner
The voices of birthing people in the video and throughout this website are in the words shared by the study participants. To protect the anonymity of the study participants, actors were used.