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How one First Nation hopes to bring birthing back to the community and improve outcomes
CBC
It was New Year's Eve when Tenielle Easter started bleeding. Staff at the nearby hospital confirmed her fears — she was having a miscarriage.
"It was very, very hard and traumatizing for me," she said. "I didn't know what to do. I feel like everything just went downhill."
The experience sent Easter, then 18, into a tailspin — years of recklessness, substance abuse and bad decisions.
When she got pregnant again three years later, she knew things had to change.
"I was just scared that it might happen again, that I would have to go through it again, because it truly is a hard thing. You don't get over it. You just learn to live with it," Easter said.
But this time, her community, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, had introduced a doula program, offering pregnant women education and support.
On June 7, Easter gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Taven.
"Most of my pregnancy, it was very hard, but with the support from my family, I got through it. And here I have my son," she said. "I am thankful for my baby boy."
Easter's story echoes those of many women living on remote First Nations in Canada.
While Canadian infant mortality rates have been declining over time, there still is a gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Poverty, a lack of housing and quality drinking water, and systemic racism are some of the factors responsible.
A 2017 study found infant mortality rates more than twice as high as the non-Indigenous population. Post-neonatal deaths made up nearly half of all Indigenous infant deaths, compared with about one-quarter of all infant deaths in the non-Indigenous population.
An analysis in 2023 using Statistics Canada data found, in the periods from 2004-06 and 2014-16, infant mortality rates of Indigenous populations were higher than those of non-Indigenous populations by a factor of about 1.8.
Health leaders in Easter's community, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, have noticed an increase in miscarriages.
"There was really no support for young mothers that were expecting and, as a result of that, there was a lot of bad outcomes, both miscarriages and also babies being born with illnesses," said N. Glen Ross, executive director of the Opaskwayak Health Authority.