Grant: Project Grant

The right to have children, not have children, and parent with dignity is central to the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. Respectfully supporting Indigenous peoples to plan and space their pregnancies is crucial to protecting this right in Canada. Indigenous communities are the holders of knowledge about what it means to have safe, culturally appropriate, and accessible family planning care. Data indicates that Indigenous clients routinely experience inequitable access, coercion, stigma, and reproductive violence when engaging with family planning care. Developing family planning programs and services that meet the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of Indigenous peoples first requires an understanding of their experiences with existing services. This research is a collaboration between Indigenous communities, researchers at the University of British Columbia, the BC First Nations Health Authority, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, the ekw'i7tl doula collective, and health care professional organizations. We aim to understand a) Indigenous peoples' experiences accessing family planning care and b) what approaches to family planning care are best-suited to Indigenous communities, contexts, priorities, and needs. We will explore what "family planning" means to communities, what are clients' experiences of accessing family planning health services, how racism and stereotypes influence access to care, and what are the characteristics of good access to family planning for Indigenous clients. The results of this research will help fill the gap in knowledge about Indigenous experiences of current family planning care in Canada and will highlight opportunities for improved service delivery.