Returning childbirth to Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic

ABSTRACT

While Inuit living in Nunavut have been advocating for decades for the return of birthing to their own communities, over two-third of births continue to occur outside of the territory. We conducted a literature review to answer the question, why has birthplace choice not been given back to Inuit yet. Based on our review we identified a number of factors impacting birthplace choice, including the organisation of the Nunavut medical system that is focused on primary health care and that cannot easily accommodate the potential clinical risks Western health care associates with birthing, often in isolation from socio-cultural risks; staffing vacancies and turn over in Nunavut, which creates challenges in continuity of care and in maintaining trust; and trends in Canada towards the medicalisation of birthing, which resulted in the displacement of traditional midwifery, and lately in the professionalisation of midwifery with training centres mostly located outside of Nunavut. We recognise that providing more options to birth in the north is complex. While birthing in the north as an option is a given objective, operationalising this objective in a consistent manner is likely going to be a challenge for years to come.

KEYWORDS:

• Midwifery
• primary care
• circumpolar north
• indigenous rights
• risks
• equity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Defined as late foetal deaths and early neonatal deaths which can be prevented by access to care. We looked for comparative analyses of perinatal mortality published at the time, but could not locate such study.

² We use the term “people” and “birthing person” to reflect inclusiveness of birthing people that do not necessarily identify as female or mothers.