#MidwiferyDataMatters: Supporting midwives to enter and access quality BORN data
Date: April 13, 2021
Have you ever wished you could quantify the many non-pharmaceutical pain management mechanisms midwives use to support their clients during labour? Or perhaps you are curious to know how many consults or transfers of care occurred due to hospital protocol rather than midwives’ clinical judgement? The AOM has heard these concerns and as of April 5, 2021, the BORN Information System (BIS) has begun collecting this and other crucial, midwifery-specific information.
April 7, 2021, is Equal Pay Day!
Date: March 24, 2021
Through our work with the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition, the AOM is preparing for Equal Pay Day (EPD) on April 7, 2021. EPD marks how long into the year, on average, women must work to earn the same amount men earned the previous year. Women with disabilities face a 56% gap; immigrant women, a 55% gap; Indigenous women, a 45% gap; and racialized women, a 40% gap (source: Ontario Equal Pay Coalition).
Closing the gap: Why Ontario midwives' legal action matters
Date: March 10, 2021
Did you know that when midwifery was regulated in Ontario in 1994, the AOM and the Ministry of Health carried out a rough pay equity analysis which resulted in a relative positioning of midwifery work against the lowest paid physician in a community health centre (CHC)? The CHC physician was a comp…
Congratulations to past AOM President Elana Johnson, YWCA Women of Excellence Honouree
Date: February 25, 2021
The Association of Ontario Midwives would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to Elana Johnson, YWCA of South Western Ontario's Women of Excellence Honouree in the Health, Science and Technology category. From the YWCA website: "Elana Johnson’s contribution to Ontario midwifery…
We need midwives who are unapologetically anti-racist
Date: February 25, 2021
The recent MANA President’s Report by Sarita Bennett, President of the Midwives Alliance of North America, was incredibly troubling and painful to read. In it, Bennett recounts her experience of providing health care as a rural emergency room physician to a community of white supremacists, during which she “learned about their lives, mindsets, ideologies and plans, not so much as individuals, because that wasn’t important to them – but rather, about what it meant to live the neo-Nazi doctrine.” The post was particularly hurtful and re-traumatizing to many Indigenous, Black and racialized midwives and birth workers who continually navigate through various forms of racism and oppression at great cost to the integrity of their personal well-being, and to their time that could be used to further other work.
Department profile: Health-Equity, Quality & Human Rights
Date: February 16, 2021
Following the 2019 study, Experiences of Racism among Ontario BIPOC Midwives and Students in Midwifery Education and Profession, the AOM has engaged with initiatives to advance racial equity in the profession. To ensure our commitment to dismantle racism is prioritized and maintained over the years…
Black History Month (2021)
Date: February 3, 2021
We recognize February as Black History Month, both as an important national action towards reparations for historic and ongoing racial injustice, erasure and oppression, and also to pay homage to Black excellence and contributions over the centuries. Yet it is even more imperative that such ac…
Self-determination is the key to improved outcomes in midwifery care within Toronto’s Indigenous community
Date: January 29, 2021
“If our community asks for it, then I will do it.” This is commitment. The commitment Métis midwife Cheryllee Bourgeois has made to the Indigenous community. Indigenous midwives, up until the medicalization of birth in the 1950s, had been providing care to pregnant people and catching babies …
Reflecting on home birth in Ontario following Netflix release of _Pieces of a Woman_
Date: January 7, 2021
The subject of out-of-hospital birth has garnered a fair share of attention in the past several months, with midwives in Ontario and across Canada reporting a marked increase in client interest in home birth amidst concerns over COVID-19. Today’s launch of the dramatic new Netflix drama _Pieces of a Woman_ has home birth in the spotlight again...
Midwifery data matters
Date: January 5, 2021
Imagine you are investigating the rates of vaginal deliveries for midwifery clients in Ontario. As a midwife, you may be interested in comparing your own individual statistics to the midwifery provincial average. Or, you may be conducting research aimed at improving birth outcomes. The BORN Information System (BIS) would be an excellent place to begin your data collection. But only if the relevant data has been acknowledged.