G5 - Essential Partnerships to Improve Cultural Safety for Indigenous Families in Montana
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT
Location: Junior Ballroom 3, 4
This session will guide participants through how collaborative partnerships among the Montana Obstetrics Maternal Support Program and the Native American Initiative Program at Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies- Montana (HMHB) are addressing maternal health inequities among Indigenous birthing people and families in the state through workforce development. In this session you will learn about the Indigenous Doula work happening in Montana and how three trainings have equipped 47 participants to effectively work with Indigenous birthing people as for prenatal, birth, and postpartum support. This session will also introduce participants to the concept of cultural safety, and how the MOMS program and the NAI program are working together to ensure that non-Indigenous perinatal providers are educated on crucial historical and cultural contexts in relation to the tenets of cultural safety. Both of these workforce development projects have the goal to improve the experience of Indigenous patients while accessing perinatal healthcare, especially when leaving their communities for care, and to combat maternal health inequities.