Projects
We conduct collaborative, community-based research focused on midwifery in New Brunswick, including how the program was developed, how people access the program (or encounter barriers to access), and service users’ experiences of midwifery care as part of reproductive health care in the province.
Current Project
Conceptions & Care: Birth Justice and Midwifery in New Brunswick
(funded by SSRHC Insight Development Grant)
Conceptions and Care is an institutional ethnography project exploring the creation and establishment of midwifery care in New Brunswick and applies an intersectional analysis centered on birth justice to this specific case model.
The core objectives of this research project are to understand:
How birth/reproductive care are conceptualized by healthcare policy makers, administrators, practitioners, and political actors in the province of New Brunswick
How these ideas are evident in the development, implementation, and provision of reproductive healthcare policy in the province
What the impacts of these conceptualizations of birth/reproductive care are on systems, individuals, and families in New Brunswick
Past Projects
Service User Experiences of Midwifery care
Fredericton Midwifery Centre
Project Summary:
This project took place from 2017 to 2020. At that time, in New Brunswick, midwifery services were offered through a Demonstration Project run out of Horizon Health in Fredericton, NB. Our research reflected on the successes and challenges of this demonstration initiative, contributed to existing literature on midwifery and client satisfaction, and developed new insights into qualitative aspects of the midwifery-client relationship. Our findings are useful to those developing polices and clinical practices regarding midwifery services in New Brunswick and beyond.
Report for New Brunswick Families for Midwives [PDF download]
This report details client experiences of seeking and accessing midwifery care through the Fredericton Midwifery Centre.
A Note About Birth Stories
Sometimes people find this page because they have had difficult birth experiences and are looking for support. Those stories are important for policy makers, practitioners, and researchers to hear. Currently we are not collecting birth stories (good ones, bad ones, with midwives or physicians, etc.). We expect to issue a call for birth stories in the near future. For now, if you have had a difficult experience and you want the healthcare system to know about it, this is the contact page for the patient advocate.