NPA Saraswathi Vedam (PhD, RM, FACNM, Sci D), is Professor of Midwifery and Lead Investigator at the Birth Place Lab in the Faculty of Medicine at University of British Columbia (UBC). She was principal investigator for the provincial and national studies Changing Childbirth in BC and Giving Voice to Mothers, which led to the development of all of the components embedded in the JEPS program. She brings extensive experience with community based participatory research methods, quality measurement, instrument development, and health professional curriculum development. 

She has successfully led transdisciplinary teams in the co-creation and implementation of pragmatic guidelines, metrics, curricula, and strategies to improve equity and quality in perinatal care across North America. She was PI for the Access and Integration Maternity care Mapping (AIMM) Study where a multi-disciplinary team designed and applied the novel MISS scoring system to examine the impact of the regulatory environment for integration of midwives on maternal-newborn outcomes. She also led a transdisciplinary team to conduct the national, (2018-2027) CIHR-funded studies, Research Examining Stories of Pregnancy and Childbirth in Canada Today (RESPCCT) and Drivers of Disparities,, with a focus on amplifying voices of communities that are seldom heard. 

As a midwife of colour and immigrant in two countries I have experienced and witnessed both the power and value of keeping the priorities and preferences of pregnant people at the center of the care plan, and the adverse impacts of allowing discrimination, mistreatment, and marginalization to continue without redress.

I hope that through the JEPS Hub, with our multi-stakeholder teams in each province, under the wise guidance of Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, the Canadian health care system can move more rapidly towards community-led solutions to wicked problems in perinatal care, advancing equity, safety, and respect for all. 

I wish more people understood the impact of respect, autonomy, and positive regard on perinatal outcomes and trust in the health care system. 

1. Elder Roberta Price: Coast-Salish Elder and Matriarch. Main role in the Hub is to guide and help direct the perspectives of Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People for relevant projects for our JEPS Hub, as well as help advise on how to best engage with Indigenous communities for our Hub projects.

2. Dr. Cynthia Maxwell: Dr. Cindy Maxwell is Vice President, Medical Affairs & System Transformation Women’s College Hospital. She is an accomplished physician, researcher and educator who has been recognized as a transformative health system leader. She is a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital and Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Maxwell co-leads N-ABL, the provincial network to support Black medical learners and is a past-President of the Black Physicians Association of Ontario. Dr. Maxwell is a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. Dr. Maxwell has been involved in equity work through mentorship of students and trainees of under-represented groups, as past President and Faculty Advisor for the Black Physicians Association of Ontario, as well as an advocate for persons with obesity.

3. Mo Korchinski (Unlocking the Gates, NGO): As someone with lived experience, Mo has worked for many years in the field of community-based participatory research alongside the Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education at UBC. She continues to bridge the gap between research and community, as a Co-Lead on the Transformative Health and Justice Research cluster (UBC).

4. National Indigenous Council of Midwives (NICM), including their leadership team: Will liaise with members to strategize ways to expand access to Indigenous Midwives and birth in Indigenous communities and Nations, including helping provide guidance on culturally appropriate, trauma informed, respectful perinatal services.

5. Black Physicians of Canada (Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass – President): Black Physicians of Canada is a registered non-profit organization serving Black physicians, residents and non-medical professionals across Canada. We aim to build a community of Black physicians and physicians-in-training as well as creating social networks and learning together. We envision a country where Black Canadians are equitably represented in the field of medicine and racialized health disparities are eliminated. We focus on providing mentorship for Black physicians and physicians in training, as well as advocacy, representation, guidance, support, encouragement, resources, and advice. We also aim to provide economic support to help fund research projects, initiatives and pursuit of leadership positions of Black physicians and physicians in training. Finally, we hope to educate the Canadian health care system about the obstacles that Black physicians frequently encounter and increase representation amongst stakeholders to be able to advocate for the needs of Black physicians, physicians in training and work toward health equity for the Black community in Canada.

6. EDI Champion: Ali Tatum, provides strategic direction and expertise to the Birth Place Lab on justice in community- centered, health services research and knowledge translation. She designs and leads implementation of best practices for inclusive excellence in BPL activities, including community engagement, participatory action research, and knowledge translation. She advises on strategies to ensure equity and respectful community partnerships across the program of research. Ali has provided her expertise on anti- racist action to the University community through various roles, including serving on the inaugural Black Caucus Executive team, serving on the Academic Advisory Council of the Peter Wall Institute.

7. Sex and Gender Champion, A.J. Lowik (they/them) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE) at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Lowik uses qualitative and arts-based methods to explore trans people’s reproductive lives and health, including their experiences accessing and navigating reproductive health care. On the topics of menstruation, abortion, lactation, perinatal care, and forced sterilization, Dr. Lowik has written journal articles, book chapters and clinical guidance manuals, has delivered dozens of trainings with clinicians, and has been featured on podcasts, radio shows and in news articles.

The JEPS Hub has 4 main objectives, which guide the activities we are currently undertaking.

1. Use CPAR approaches to prioritize regional scaling of existing person-centered care models and tools that improve quality in perinatal health services.

2. Facilitate mobilization, replication and adoption of Indigenous-led and midwifery-led models of perinatal services for marginalized and underserved communities. 

3. Provide our existing, ready-to-use, low-burden curricula, and accountability tools to health care providers and facilities that provide services to equity-seeking communities. 

4. Expand representation in the perinatal research work force by building capacity in early career scholars from marginalized communities to engage in health equity research. 

The overall aim of the Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services (JEPS) Hub is to expand access to models of care and health services that (i) meet all service users with unconditional positive regard, (ii) provide reliable information on culturally-safe options for care; (iii) respect their autonomy; and, (iv) are free from mistreatment and discrimination. 

Different aspects of care would look different if the Hub had the impact it envisions, but particularly the following aspects of care would change: 

Health professional curricula: As part of our projects, we have an interprofessional course on person-centered care, which develops individual and team competencies to support patient autonomy, cultural safety and respectful communication. The Dialogues and Decisions course would be implemented and included in mandatory interprofessional continuing education curricula in health care institutions.

Person-Centered accountability tools: Our community-responsive quality measures and metrics that assess respectful, evidence-based care, would be routinely embedded into quality assurance and improvement programs across settings where perinatal services are offered.

Models of Care and evidence-based options for care, including Indigenous midwife-led care, that prioritize culture-centered approaches, continuity of career, informed choice, self-determination, that support physiology and are free from mistreatment, are accessible to all families in all regions of Canada.

We envision being part of a coalition like the Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition Hub, as an opportunity to be able to magnify the impact of the work of the hub members, including our findings from the CIHR – funded national RESPCCT study, by connecting this group of researchers, perinatal health workers and community organizations. By connecting and working collaboratively with different community partners and individuals across Canada, we are aiming to make sure that knowledge is effectively and accurately disseminated.

Our Hub holds monthly (except for December and summer) seminars on topics related to global health, respectful care in perinatal services, participatory-action research related to perinatal care, JEPS Hub related academic work, etc. We post about these seminars on our Instagram account.

Find us on Bluesky: @birthplacelab.bsky.social

Up-to-date presentations and seminars for our Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services hub seminar series can be found here: Presentations | Perinatal Services

Alonso is the project coordinator for the JEPS Hub: [email protected]

Damara is our Knowledge Translation and Communication specialist: [email protected]