The colour of birth

A new research project called the Colour of Birth aims to examine the hidden histories of racialized midwives in Canada during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The project is led by principal investigators Karline Wilson-Mitchell, director and associate professor, Midwifery Education Program, Ryerson University, and Karen Flynn, associate professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.       

Drawing upon oral histories, community networking and archival materials, an interdisciplinary team of historians, researchers, archivists, and storytellers will create a virtual database that documents the birth stories of racialized midwives in multimedia formats.   

Currently, the work of racialized midwives in early settlement communities is not represented in the historical record. Many of these midwives were racialized immigrants from the Caribbean, settlers, refugees fleeing slavery in the United States or indentured workers. 

“Wherever there were settlements and communities, even if at first they were small and perhaps primarily male settlers, they eventually did have families ... and midwives that travelled with them and were able to provide services in these communities,” says Wilson-Mitchell.

Despite providing midwifery care in their own communities, racialized midwives faced barriers from the medical establishment -- which impacted their work, the well-being of the families they served and their representation in history.

A pilot study led by the team examined Black midwives in Alberta and Nova Scotia between 1800-1970. The study found that Black midwives delivered traditional midwifery care in the homes of their communities. However, when emergencies arose and their clients were transferred to hospital, Black midwives were not permitted inside. 

“In emergencies, we hear stories of midwives assessing someone, bringing them on the back of a cart ... and they would somehow transport these mothers for lifesaving interventions at the hospital, but the midwife wasn’t allowed to go inside ... and yet, these midwives were a lifeline to their community,” explains Wilson-Mitchell.

In the Nova Scotia settlement of Africville, a small village of predominantly Black Canadians, Wilson-Mitchell describes how many white physicians would not, or could not, enter the community to care for patients. “They were dependent on the midwives that were going into these regions, knew the people, were well trusted and respected. The midwives would bring these women to the hospital … but [the midwives] weren’t allowed to come inside.”

By the 1950s, when Canadian birth became medicalized in hospitals, defacto segregation impacted Black midwives’ ability to practice in hospitals, which affected Black families' ability to work with midwives of their choice.

While the research team began their data collection in the Black Canadian community, they hope to expand their work to include other racialized communities, such as the Japanese Canadian community, the Chinese Canadian community and the South Asian Indian Sikh Canadian community. 

“We do know that many of these racialized communities were segregated, and they were in defacto medical apartheid,” Wilson-Mitchell says. 

Wilson-Mitchell hopes that the history of racialized midwives will become part of the Ryerson Midwifery Education Program curriculum, and that this historical archiving work will continue for generations to come. 

More broadly, she hopes that the research outcomes will inform, inspire and empower racialized immigrant communities across Canada. “Without context, without history, without a past, it’s difficult to anchor ourselves so that we can proceed into the future,” she says. “This will allow us to have an informed future in maternal newborn healthcare and in community services within immigrant communities today. That knowledge is power.” 

This research project is funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant and an Association of Ontario Midwives Research Grant.