Transcript
Midwife Sharon Robinson says often health care providers don't even seem to be aware that their comments are discriminatory. She said she had seen discrimination against mothers who were obese.
SHARON ROBINSON: Unfortunately when midwives are saying things like 'All islanders come over and want to eat McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken everyday and they're making choices'.
INDIRA: Have you witnessed those kinds of comments in your practice?
SHARON ROBINSON: Yes. Yes, I have. And it's very disheartening. And I have seen women, behind their backs, midwives say "you know I think she just sits on the beach and eats Taro all day" you know, and that's just not acceptable.
Ms Robinson says even if negative comments are made in private, the attitudes affect the quality of care given and the safety and confidence a mother feels. Tongan-Maori mother Vasiti Palivi agrees and says her experience at a private birthing unit was horrible.
VASITI PALIVI: The receiving midwife sort of said some derogatory remarks to me. My waters had broken in the car so I was somewhat covered in birthing fluids and so when I arrived she sort of made me feel really quite inferior. She made me actually feel like I was dirty.
Academic researcher Ruth De Souza says there needs to be more cultural understanding and awareness within maternity care in New Zealand. She recalls an incident during her work at an Auckland hospital where staff asked a young teenage boy to find out how much blood his mother had discharged.
RUTH DE SOUZA: I had asked if we could get an interpreter and the person who was in charge that day said 'no, we're going to have to use her family.' And the only person that could be used was her son. And so, we were asking her son if he could ask his mother about how much blood was on her pad. And it just felt so inappropriate and I was so upset because you know, that seemed all kinds of wrong for me.
Labour's Social Development spokesperson, Carmel Sepuloni says she's not surprised at some of the stories.
CARMEL SEPULONI: I just have had my own experiences and I know that others have had experiences as well where they were made to feel slightly uncomfortable.
She was 20 years old when she went into labour with her eldest son and says she felt dismissed when she called for a nurse to ask for pain relief.
CARMEL SEPULONI: I can remember really clearly her kind of rolling her eyes at me, sitting down on the bed next to me. Holding my hand and looking me in the eye and saying to me 'just remember, you're the one that wanted to have this baby'. Then she smiled and then got up and walked out. And I can remember thinking, I can't believe she just said that to me.
New Zealand Midwifery Council chair Dr Judith McAra Couper says the council has clear frameworks around cultural safety within the practice.
JUDITH MCARA COUPER: It's really distressing for me to hear as a midwife and to be honest, as a New Zealander. For us in midwifery council we have really clear expectations around cultural competence. And for us cultural competence is valued as highly as clinical confidence. So midwives are really aware of what's expected of them.
Of the 3033 registered midwives last year, only 174 were Maori, and 31 were Pacific. Dr De Souza says often systems can be insensitive without meaning to be.
RUTH DE SOUZA: What we often forget is that the healthcare system has it's own distinctive culture and it reflects the dominant culture's values and practices.
Dr McAra Couper says the council and New Zealand College of Midwives take cultural competence and safety seriously.
JUDITH MCARA COUPER: It would be naive not to think that as an academic that in our institutions there aren't hegemonic interests at play, absolutely. You just need to talk to anybody from another culture who goes into our institutions. But in terms of midwifery, we work really really hard that women who are different from us - that we work with them in ways that are respectful and acknowledge what they need and their families need.
Midwife Moon Carson says she hasn't seen any racism within the workforce and believes some comments are often misconstrued.
MOON CARSON: There's quite a few midwives that have come from overseas that work here and I don't think that they're as aware and I don't think they try as hard to have a cultural awareness.I know I definitely try really hard to make sure I'm culturally aware of things.
Midwife Sharon Robinson says women in labour are very sensitive and vulnerable and it's important for them to feel safe culturally, spiritually, phsycologically and medically. In maternity care, babies are entitled to 10 free visits from a midwife and a Well Child worker in their first year. But Ministry of Health figures for 2014 show 6.7 percent, or 4037 babies, received no visit within their first 12 months. Of that group, Māori and Pacific made up 43.5 percent and families classed as the most deprived made up 33.9 percent. Ms Sepuloni says those figures are concerning.
CARMEL SEPULONI: Off the top of my head I can imagine that part of the reason would be that for Maori and Pacific, there are real housing issues and so transience would be an issue and whether the health ...are keeping up with where our women are moving to after they have babies.
Dr McAra Couper says the council is working on launching a series of workshops that will address cultural competence and safety and would like to see more diversity among midwives.
