Knowledge Resources & Publications

Carol Couchie and Claire Dion Fletcher

Podcast: Voices from the Field 11 - Supporting Indigenous Midwifery during COVID-19

April 2020

NCCIH Voices from the Field Podcast Series
NCCIH Voices from the Field Podcasts

Voices from the Field

Welcome to Voices from the Field, a podcast series produced by the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health (NCCIH), which focuses on innovative research and community-based initiatives promoting the health and well-being of First Nation, Inuit and Metis peoples in Canada. This episode was supported by the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID).

Episode 11: Supporting Indigenous Midwifery during COVID-19

On April 3, 2020, the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM) and the Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM) issued the following statement: Midwives as Essential Primary Care Providers in the Context of COVID-19. This episode of Voices from the Field is based on a conversation with Carol Couchie and Claire Dion Fletcher, co-chairs of NACM, in which they speak to this statement and how Indigenous midwifery has been impacted by COVID-19.

 

Listen on SoundCloud

 


 

Bios

Carol Couchie
Carol Couchie

Carol Couchie is a Nishnawbe Kwe from Nipissing First Nation. She is a mother and grandmother, and has worked as a Midwife for 20 years in Ontario, Northern Manitoba and Northern Quebec.

She has attended upwards of 800 births in her work as a midwife. She is one of the original members of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives, where she currently serves as a co- chair with Clair Dion Fletcher. She now lives in her home community of Nipissing First Nation where she helped found KTigaaning Midwives, an Indigenous focused Midwifery practice and Birth Center with her daughter Rachel Dennis-Couchie.

 

 

 

 

Claire Dion Fletcher
Claire Dion Fletcher

Claire Dion Fletcher is an Indigenous (Lenape- Potawatomi) and mixed settler Registered Midwife practicing at Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto. She graduated from the Midwifery Education Program at Ryerson University. She is committed to the growth of Indigenous midwifery in Ontario and the expansion of Indigenous content in midwifery education. Claire is presently Co-chair of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives. Claire recently completed her Master of Arts in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University, where her research focused on decolonized health care and Indigenous midwifery.


 

 

Download the transcript