Birthing Centre wins a Prix Hippocrate

Selected winner of the 2022 MUHC Nursing Innovation Award, the project “Giving birth away from home in a good way; supporting culturally safe Indigenous birth in high-risk obstetrics” at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) has just won yet another award.

On October 17, the project was awarded a prestigious Prix Hippocrate in the category Innovation – Prestation de services adaptés, inclusifs et transversaux aux populations, notamment les plus vulnérables. The Prix Hippocrate are awarded to innovative initiatives in the field of health and social services, whether they come from public, private or associative organizations. They must have a proven impact on the health and well-being of the population.

The project

Imagine being a high-risk pregnancy and having to be airlifted hundreds of kilometres away from home to give birth, sometimes without the support of loved ones, in order to receive care in a specialized hospital. 

This is what more than 300 Indigenous women from Northern Quebec go through every year when they come to give birth at the MUHC. To make their experience more comfortable, the MUHC and its partners in the Cree and Inuit communities decided to implement measures to ensure better cultural safety for these patients.

Inuit midwives came to the MUHC to train staff in obstetrics. Through story telling, they provided teaching on different cultural aspects of Inuit birth and life, and illustrated the impacts that passed events have played on the population today. Topics included the history of Inuit midwifery and Inuit in Nunavik, traditional Inuit birth cultural practices, and how to support labor in the Inuit way.

Staff were surveyed, before and after the training, to determine if these meetings resolved any unconscious biases. Results were shared with the midwives. The sessions were also videotaped to pass on the midwives’ knowledge to new obstetrical nurses who will be hired at the MUHC.

The team worked with a Cree midwife and the Cree birth coordinator to present at the obstetrical grand rounds on informed choice vs informed consent. A separate training video including story telling will be developed as well.  

Multiple steps taken

Refrigerators, freezers and kettles are now available for Indigenous families to bring in traditional foods. Carts equipped with oil diffusers and sprays are also available for smudging, a traditional ceremony to purify the soul of negative thoughts. Traditional Indigenous art has been displayed to provide a familiar environment for patients.

A pilot project to accommodate a greater family presence in the delivery room was launched. Childbirth is an important collective event for the Cree and Inuit communities, and family members play an essential role, particularly in the passage of traditional knowledge.

All of this is the result of consultations with Inuit and Cree patient partners. The recommendations resulting from these discussions were validated with members of the Cree community: mothers, midwives, physicians, etc.

Thank you to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation, the MUHC Foundation and the Herta Vodstrcil estate for their generous donation.