EDUCATION

Call for Interest: Expanding Community-based Indigenous Midwifery Education

NICM is seeking communities interested in participating in a project that aims to expand opportunities to community-based Indigenous midwifery education. The project aims to bring midwifery education opportunities as close to home as possible to aspiring Indigenous midwifery students.

Applications for the enrollment in this project are for 2021/2022.

Where there are services, there will be education

Our vision inspired us to begin to articulate the core competencies of Indigenous midwifery. This is a key component in our aim to increase the pathways to education, decolonize training experiences, remove funding barriers to midwifery practice, and support retention.

There are many paths to becoming a midwife. Education is an essential part of restoring midwifery to Indigenous peoples across Canada. This knowledge must be brought home to our communities.

All midwifery education programs provide a combination of classroom‑based or academic learning and, clinical placements or apprenticeship in midwifery clinics. Midwifery education includes courses from the social sciences, humanities, and sciences. Teaching methods include lectures, seminars, laboratories, distance learning and mentorship. Regardless of the program you enter, midwifery education takes place in many settings, including university or college campuses, midwifery clinics, hospitals, and birth centres. Currently, most midwifery programs expect that you will be willing to relocate for parts of your education program.

Midwifery education gives students the opportunity to develop both the hands-on clinical skills and theoretical knowledge necessary to be primary caregivers for people, babies, and their families throughout pregnancy, birth and the first six weeks postpartum.