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“Healing is an Act of Communion”: Critical Perspectives on Women’s Health, Wellness, and Disease

Shannan Grant, Barbara Hamilton-Hinch, Irene Ogada, Dayna Lee-Baggley, Tara Pride, Clare Goulet, Maggie MacIntyre, Tammy Bernasky and Jessica Jerome

The Canvas Remembers: Spirit and Skin

Jessica Jerome

Mother, Mutter, Matter

Nancy Kang

Impairments in Proprioception/Stillness in Motion

Jessica Oler

Sari not Sorry

Rohini Bannerjee

Grief as Communion: Honouring Collective Grief Through a Black Feminist Ethic of Care

Crystal-Jade Cargill

Healing in Unexpected Spaces: A Reflection of the Care Assemblage of My Master’s Thesis

Sarah Costantini

Bodies in Conflict: Understanding Women’s Experiences of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Samadrita Chowdhuri
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a complex medical condition that impacts women’s bodies and identities, especially in relation to gendered expectations of health and femininity. Drawing on feminist and social constructionist frameworks, this study uses ideas of “doing gender” and “undoing gender,” in connection with the concept of medicalization, to investigate the relationship between self-perception, medical authority, and gender norms. This qualitative study examined the embodied experiences of Indian and Indo-Canadian women living with PCOS in Edmonton, Canada, using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and body mapping as the primary methods of data collection. According to the findings, women establish a hierarchy of symptoms, giving external symptoms like acne and hirsutism precedence over issues about fertility. This hierarchy is a reflection of internalized ideas of feminine appearance and also a rejection of feminine functionality focused on reproductivity. The women’s choices of treatment, especially with regard to hormonal contraceptives, reflect a negotiation between defying and adhering to sociocultural and biological standards of womanhood. This study challenges conventional medicalized discourses on PCOS by emphasizing women’s narratives, and advances a more comprehensive understanding of gender, health, and embodiment. It emphasizes the necessity of more patient-centered approaches to recognize and validate opportunities for healing that are not based on predetermined and essentialist notions of health and femininity.

Toward Conceptual Clarity: Out-of-Hospital Birth Practices and Freebirth Entrepreneurialism

Krista Johnston and Christiana MacDougall
There is a growing interest in giving birth outside of hospitals and healthcare systems. In our analysis of more than five years of qualitative research, we have noted the conflation of unregulated birth care with regulated midwifery care, a concern also identified by several professional midwifery associations in Canada. This is particularly concerning in a national context where midwifery remains insufficiently integrated and understood. Growing healthcare dis/misinformation and increasing politicization around healthcare have led to confusion for those choosing among different forms of birth care. In this article we differentiate among birth workers and practices, focusing on unregulated forms of care, including doulas, lay or traditional midwives, and other kinds of birth workers, as well as freebirth, or unassisted birth. This analysis paper provides information on the range of practices that healthcare providers may encounter and articulates areas of difference and overlap among forms of birth care. It also highlights strategies to address some of the unmet needs that are leading people to choose unregulated birth care.

“I don’t want to be a burden on others”: Perspectives of "Young-old" Thai Women on Self-reliance, Wellness, and Aging

Kullanit Nitiwarangkul
This article examines the perspectives of middle- and upper-class “young-old” women (aged 60 to 69) in Thailand on “wellness” amidst the country’s rapidly aging population. Drawing upon findings from my interviews with sixteen older women, it explores how self-reliance has become central to their pursuit of decent physical and mental health. Participants strived to maintain their health, preserve mobility, and reduce dependence on family members. At the same time, some served as caregivers for their families in a culture that emphasizes familial interdependence. Additionally, this paper analyzes how “mental wellness” is framed within self-reliance, shaped by Buddhist teachings and neoliberal ideals, as these women navigate life transitions and sustain their well-being amidst the disruptions of COVID-19. The study further demonstrates their rising concerns and demands for essential resources for their wellness, including health insurance, professional caregiving, and adequate housing, in the absence of sufficient public welfare. The paper offers a nuanced understanding of self-reliance and wellness in later life and promotes interventions to support older individuals. It does so by foregrounding the classed, gendered, and culturally specific experiences of aging women in the Global South, a topic rarely studied in fields such as gerontology and feminist studies.

"Where is the Sudheni Didi?”: Community Perspectives and Revisiting Nepal’s Maternal Health Policies

Sunisha Neupane
This article examines Nepal’s maternal health policies in the context of a remote community in western Nepal. There has been a substantial decline in maternal mortality and an increase in institutional deliveries, in Nepal, but, along with these achievements, inequities in maternal health continue. Drawing on immersive participatory research conducted in 2015 in two villages in Baglung district, the study integrates observation, fieldnotes, focus group discussions, participatory workshops and interviews with women, health workers and national maternal health experts. Findings show that distance, terrain, limited health post hours, and unreliable transport make access to institutional services practically challenging in remote Nepal. Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) occupy an in-between position, understanding women’s lived experiences while doing their best to follow protocols and mandates. Community members express the need for home-based support when facilities cannot be reached. The disappearance of the sudheni reflects a broader policy shift that privileges service availability and biomedical definitions of skilled care. The article argues that maternal health policy must move beyond institutional targets toward context-responsive approaches that centre women’s lived experiences and make maternity care accessible to remote populations.

How do Indigenous People in Kjipuktuk Conceptualize Poverty? A Qualitative Study Exploring the Relationship of Impoverishment to Health

Madeline Rae and Margaret Robinson
This pilot study examines Indigenous conceptualizations of poverty in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia) to lay groundwork for a holistic model of Indigenous poverty that can link with holistic models of Indigenous health already in use. Using community-based methods and Mi’kmaw cultural practices, the researchers conducted sharing circles and interviews with 12 Indigenous participants who had experienced or were still living in poverty. Results strongly supported the distinctiveness of Indigenous experiences of poverty and identified starting points for a holistic poverty model.

When You Know Better You Do Better: Creating Cultural Safety for Black Patients

Olivia Riley-States and Renee Crossman
Background: Western healthcare is inundated with processes that don’t meet the cultural needs of racialized populations or consider non-medical aspects of health and healing. Social structures and power imbalances make it difficult to change these processes. The health experiences of Black people are affected by mistrust, racial microaggressions, and discrimination. To foster health and healing, we must consider the harm done when care is not culturally responsive. Methods: To address the lack of culturally safe healthcare, we completed a quality improvement project to develop an educational workshop about cultural safety with Black patients. The workshop was created using the theoretical lens of relational inquiry and included a literature review, environmental scan, and consultations. The workshop is designed to challenge providers to be self-reflective of their biases while developing an understanding of the health needs of Black patients, especially the African Nova Scotian (ANS) population. Results: The session has been delivered and evaluation feedback indicated positive experiences with some change in knowledge. Participants engaged in difficult discussions about bias and discrimination in their workplaces and themselves. Conclusion: Cultural safety education can positively impact healthcare providers' attitudes. Healthcare is multifaceted for Black people; healthcare providers must understand the intersection of anti-Black racism and health. Rebuilding trust with the Black community, acknowledging harm, and increasing representation in healthcare are necessary to address health disparities for Black people. Healing the relationship between ANS communities and the healthcare system requires critical reflection and targeted actions. Cultural safety education can initiate change.

Tracing the Importance of Mother Blame

Irene Shankar
During a health crisis, vaccines can curb the spread of diseases and provide much-needed immunity for all those deemed at risk. To reach herd immunity and successfully curb disease spread, a significant portion of the population needs to get vaccinated. Thus, it is vital to consider the conditions under which people will accept or refuse vaccinations. Using a case study from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, this paper examines how historical cases of iatrogenesis, medical intervention on women’s bodies, societal practices of blaming mothers for children’s ill health, and the provincial government’s record on healthcare funding and support worked together to inform women’s vaccination decisions. The findings, based on 19 qualitative semi-structured interviews, indicate that during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, pregnant women were concerned about making the wrong decisions due to societal mothering blame and gendered responsibility within the field of medicine. Their decision to get vaccinated was made in consideration of medical surveillance and scrutiny of pregnant bodies and their feelings of (dis)trust in the provincial government. The research findings allow for a more complex understanding of health decisions by situating women’s vaccination decisions within a larger historical and sociopolitical context. Moreover, the findings indicate that trust cannot be readily invoked in moments of crisis but requires a sustained and ongoing dedication to examining issues of gender inequity within medical practices and governmental policies.

The Cruelty of the Curative

Alanna Veitch and Jen Rinaldi
In this paper, we take up Lauren Berlant’s (2011) theoretical framing of cruel optimism to ground our critique of normalizing scripts around disability, recovery, and healing which shape conceptualizations of health. We argue that these scripts do little to account for the multitude of disability experiences that meet and cycle through intersections of race, gender, class, culture, sexuality, and personhood. This work first requires engaging with mainstream perspectives on recovery and healing which undergird Western rehabilitative practices, and a turn toward Black and Indigenous conceptualizations of health and healing as practices grounded in community and social justice. We situate our review and discussion within a North American and Canadian context. Next, we describe the arts-informed counter-narrative methodology we utilize to share glimpses into our digitized disability stories. Our stories comprise moments of disruption, vulnerability, and isolation, enabling us to transform silence into language and action, and to reflect on the intricate dance between disability, health, and illness we are bound up in and continue cycling through. We show how our counter-narratives, when brought together, challenge the “getting better” meta-narrative. We target notions of getting better because, like the cruel promise of recovery, they idealize a return to “normal” and dismiss histories that bear on the present in felt and embodied ways. Rather than “getting better,” bound up in fantastical promises, we find the authenticity of our own failures and vulnerabilities generative, indecipherable, and enduring.

Making Space for All Body Sizes in Pre-, Peri-, and Post-natal Care in Atlantic Canada: A Patient-Informed Hospital Equipment Inventory

Rachel Waugh, Maxine Bernard, Megan Gray, Raashsni Chandrasekar, Vanessa DeClercq, Jillian Coolen, Barbara Hamilton-Hinch, Erna Snelgrove-Clarke and Shannan Grant
Background: Diverse, versatile, and readily accessible equipment is essential for healthcare provision, to maximize care quality, minimize complications, and eliminate weight stigma and discrimination. Hospital equipment inventories (inventories) and audits can be completed by internal or external reviewers and are not always publicly available or subject to peer review, despite hospitals receiving significant public funding for care and research. Objective: The objective of this research was to complete an inventory audit to identify, count, and describe (type, weight capacity) bariatric equipment in nine units/ clinics in the Women’s Building of a maternal-newborn hospital in Atlantic Canada. Methods: Six registered nurses completed inventories using a standardized form, including type and weight capacity of all bariatric equipment, in 2018 and 2021, at nine units/clinic sites within an urban maternal-newborn tertiary care facility in Atlantic Canada. Results: The inventory audits conducted in 2018 and 2021 show that additional bariatric beds, stretchers, and blood pressure cuffs were purchased. Nonetheless, findings agree with existing peer-reviewed literature that show bariatric equipment is lacking in Canadian tertiary care settings. Conclusion: The objective of this project was met, confirming an increase in the availability of specific bariatric inventory between 2018 and 2021; however, the current availability and amount of bariatric equipment is not adequate. This quality improvement initiative highlights a strength of local clinician-researcher efforts, relationships, and engagement with patient-centred implementation science.

Epilogue: I found my voice

Barbara Hamilton-Hinch