GOLD Learning Speakers

There is an urgent need for all health care providers to be well versed in cultural humility and cultural safety during pregnancy and birth. This presentation will explore these concepts in the context of providing labour support, and provide a detailed look at what cultural humility is, why we should practice it and the consequences when we don’t, along with practical information about how to practice cultural humility and the beautiful changes that happen when we approach labour support with an open mind and heart and the intention to be aware of our own biases in order to provide culturally safe care.

The results of the MBRRACE report 2018, a UK study into maternal deaths made me want to look beyond the statistics and see what, if anything, could be done to close the disparities gap. Much of my knowledge has been gained via personal stories, blog posts, articles, news reports and reading research about black maternal deaths, as well as from the MBRRACE study itself. Looking into the statistics caused me to want to know if they were specific to the UK and the West and if so, why? By discovering that the outcomes for black women were better on the African continent, I began to read about the differences in lifestyles to see if that made a difference. Acknowledging systemic and structural racism brought many issues to light. From this I was able to hypothesise that implicit and explicit bias are significant factors in the poor outcomes. The inevitable conclusion to this, in my mind, was the need for people to be supported by those who would work without, or with a minimum level of bias ergo black women being supported by black women. There needs to be a more holistic approach to the care of black women, so that non black birthkeepers are also able to give good, safe support.