Spirit of Birth Indigenous Pregnancy and Parenting App

Indigenous mothers experience many barriers to care in the Canadian medical system, which includes the exclusion of Elders, the removal of care from the community, the erasure or dismissal of traditional teachings and celebrations, systemic racism which creates a lack of cultural safety for Indigenous women and families, and the decentralization of spirituality. Indigenous birth outcomes are significantly worse than those of the majority non-Indigenous population in Canada, across every major birth outcome. Infant and perinatal mortality rates are 2.1 to 2.3 times higher for Indigenous families. While the limitations of perinatal data availability in Canada make it challenging to determine how much higher the preterm birth rate is for Indigenous women across the country, it has been established that Inuit women in Quebec experience a preterm birth rate that is 1.5 times the rate of non-First Nations women, and in British Columbia, preterm birth rates in Indigenous communities are 40 to 70% higher than in non-Indigenous communities. Indigenous people have the highest birth rate in the country. The Indigenous population increased by more than 200,000 people between 2006 and 2011 (or a 20% increase, compared with 5.2% for the non-Indigenous population.