The Reproductive Justice Story Project is a grassroots patient advocacy initiative. It exists to bring attention to mistreatment and abuse within our healthcare system as a result of a culture that is not always patient-centred and does not prioritize communication, informed decision-making, and consent.
The Community Story Blog launched in January 2018 to serve as a public body of evidence of the range of issues faced by patients across Ontario. As of December 2018, we are beginning to welcome stories from across Canada.
It's clear the lack of access to respectful, inclusive, patient-centred care affects patients across demographic lines. However, marginalized populations are disproportionately impacted including Indigenous, Black, and people of colour, young people, fat folks, those living on low incomes, with disabilities, whose first language is not that of their care providers, those with diverse gender expression or presentation, less conventional family structures, mental health or trauma histories, and many others.
Research shows that racialized populations lack access to culturally safe care, face implicit bias and overt discrimination from care providers and health systems, and even experience higher rates of complications and infant/maternal mortality as a result. The intergenerational impacts of settler-colonial violence on the reproductive health and rights of Indigenous communities in Canada are omnipresent; from forced and coerced sterilizations, to high rates of Indigenous children in care across the country.
Barriers also exist for LGBTQIA2+ identified individuals and families seeking out and accessing quality care. For two-spirit, trans, non-binary, agender, and gender non-conforming people, care providers and care settings that are truly inclusive and gender-affirming are still scarce in most communities.
Reproductive Justice is about much more than the freedom to plan our own families. It's about dignity, autonomy, and self-determination in all stages of our reproductive lives.
Though the medical community is slow to change, we believe that change can happen if we speak up together!
The results of our independent patient feedback survey for St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto are now available:
content note: the community story blog contains subject matter that may bring up difficult feelings for some readers. please practice self-care while reading and check out our page of resources if you need support
![*CW sexual trauma/abuse/assault* - You don't need to have a history of trauma to be traumatized by the treatment you receive. When patients are belittled, pressured, coerced, and assaulted by their care providers, that can be traumatic. When patients are in a vulnerable position, feeling ignored and dismissed by their healthcare providers who hold all the power, that can be traumatic. . .
There seem to be more resources becoming available about providing sensitive trauma-informed care to survivors of childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault, and while this is so important and necessary (especially in the #MeToo era) we must remember to think about trauma in a much broader way. Sexual trauma is not the only trauma that can impact folks' interactions with the health system while accessing reproductive healthcare! Adverse childhood experiences are trauma. Poverty is trauma. Oppression is trauma. Racism is trauma. Neglect is trauma. Intimate partner violence is trauma. Historical & intergenerational violence, war, housing instability, incarceration, forced hospitalization, the child welfare system... all of these and so much more can be experienced as trauma! Not every person with a history of trauma uses the word "trauma" to describe their experience, but that doesn't make it's impact any less valid.
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Trauma can leave us feeling powerless and unable to cope. When we interact with big systems that do not have our needs in mind and leave us feeling powerless, it can be incredibly traumatizing. This is why trauma-informed care can be framed as a reproductive justice issue!
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. [#ImageDescription: white text on a brown background which reads: "we don't require a history of trauma to be traumatized by the care we receive"] #trauma #ptsd #mentalhealth #reprojustice #healthequity #birthtrauma #traumainformedcare](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5c42524eb4d5022bd4c0e6e4/1547850325515/)
![There's an update on the impact of our survey report at St. Joe's Toronto. Check out an open letter from the project founder (link in profile) on the response from the hospital! Our next survey in the works will be aimed at exposing obstetric violence and birth trauma across Ontario, Canada. Stay tuned! .
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. [#ImageDescription: Dark brown background with a filtered photo of an obstetrician's gloved hands with scissors with the words,"if a patient would prefer not to be given an episiotomy without their knowledge or consent, is that something they should be outlining ahead of time on their whiteboard?"at the bottom of the image is our web address "reproductivejusticestories.org"]
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#obstetricviolence #birthtrauma #birthjustice #birthequity #patientadvocacy #informedconsent #ontario #toronto](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5bd757e807fc7b4626ae265c/1540839420368/)
![October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month 💗
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The pain of loss can be compounded by the insensitivity and lack of knowledge & training of some healthcare providers in a healthcare system that is not always set up to support folks dealing with loss. Our Community Story Blog welcomes your stories of mistreatment, negligence, and abuse during pregnancy or infant loss in Ontario.
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Have you found accessible, zero-cost support for pregnancy & infant loss in your community? Consider sending a DM with details and we'll add it to our list of resources!
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[#ImageDescription: Three small white butterflies resting on a blueish-purple sprig of lilac flowers with pink in the background. Over the image is white text which reads "October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss awareness month". In the bottom right corner, the website address "reproductivejusticestories.org"] #PAIL #pregnancyinfantlossawareness #perinatalbereavement #neonatalloss #normalizemiscarriage #1in4 #youarenotalone](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5bc4cdb6047d594cfb889dca/1539624382995/)
![Today was #WorldMentalHealthDay! If you're a healthcare provider or mental health professional, it's a great day to remind yourself that the reproductive health and mental health of your clients are intertwined. It's a great day to be mindful of the power differential inherent in your client/care provider relationships, to be aware that you have the power to cause pain and trauma, or to prevent and heal it. Remember that if your practice isn't trauma-informed, it's not too late to change. If your practice doesn't strive to be intersectional and anti-oppressive, it's not too late to learn. If your practice isn't client-centred, it's not too late to do better.
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If you are struggling with your mental health, know that you are not broken but the system is. Know that good help is sometimes hard to find but you DO deserve to find good help. Know that even if you don't see your story or your symptoms reflected in the resources that are available to you, you are not alone.
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If you have a story to share about the mental health impacts of your interactions with the healthcare system during pregnancy, childbirth, and in the postpartum period, or while accessing other forms of reproductive healthcare (including pregnancy & infant loss, abortion, and more!) consider lending your voice to our Community Story Blog. Link in bio.
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[#ImageDescription: the words "You Are Not Alone" scrawled in a cursive handwritten-style font. The text is white. The background is a blue cloudy sky]](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5bbed2acd1fb6786b43c2205/1539232445966/)
![Happy Thanksgiving! Hope our Canadian followers are enjoying the long weekend. Did you know that "racism is fundamentally responsible for the alarming disparities in health between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples" in Canada?(1) Did you know that Canada has a rich history of "forced sterilizations, coerced abortions and other forms of reproductive violence against Indigenous women"?(2) Did you know that due to lack of care options in many remote Indigenous communities, pregnant folks must be evacuated to hospitals further south just to give birth - away from their families, traditions, and communities?(3) Did you know that in some of those same northern communities, the infant mortality rate is as high as 3-4 times the national average?(4) Did you know that Indigenous parents are 20% more likely to experience perinatal depression than their white counterparts in Canada(5) and that "First Nations, Metis and Inuit youth [make] up 52 per cent of foster children younger than 14 in Canada, despite representing just eight per cent of that age group"?(6) Wow, there's plenty to be thankful for in Canada, but the realities that Indigenous communities are STILL facing in 2018 is nothing short of shameful. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Sources cited in comments
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[#ImageDescription: a photo taken from above of a pair of feet in cozy boots, standing in colourful autumn leaves. White text in a curly italic font reads "racism is fundamentally responsible for the alarming disparities in health between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples", a quotation from the 2015 report entitled "First Peoples, Second Class Treatment: The role of racism in the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples in Canada"]](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5bba4085e5a68b7d8f4be1a0/1538932885113/)
![We've said it before & we'll say it again: obstetric violence is gender-based violence, period.
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. "Obstetric violence is institutional, gender-based violence, suffered by pregnant [people] at the hands of healthcare personnel.
In a 2007 law, Venezuela said it includes dehumanised treatment, abuse of medication, and “the appropriation of the body and reproductive processes of [pregnant & birthing persons] by health personnel… bringing with it loss of autonomy and the ability to decide freely about their bodies and sexuality.” In 2014, the World Health Organisation described disrespectful and abusive care during childbirth – including physical and verbal abuse, refusals of care and medication, and coercive or unconsented medical procedures – as human rights violations." The above quotation and particular wording on this image are from the following article (see the project facebook page for the link) :
How Italian women are organising against ‘obstetric violence’
by ALESSANDRA CICALI 4 January 2018
https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/alessandra-cicali/how-italian-women-are-organising-against-obstetric-violence](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5bad06aaf29efeecf510474e/1538066115620/)
We would like to respectfully acknowledge that the land on which The Reproductive Justice Story Project is based in Tkaronto (Toronto) is the traditional territory of the Wendat, the Anishnaabek, Haudenosaunee, Métis, and the Mississaugas of the New Credit. We acknowledge the intergenerational impacts of settler-colonial violence and their implications on Indigenous reproductive health, rights, and justice - historically and into the present day.
The Reproductive Justice Story Project © 2018