Sara Wolfe

Last updated
Sara Wolfe
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Nationality Brunswick House First Nation, [1] Canadian
Education Rotman School of Management [1]
Occupation(s)nurse, midwife, healthcare advocate
Years active1999–present
Known forIndigenous midwifery

Sara Wolfe (born 1973) is an Anishnawbe registered nurse, registered midwife. [2] [3] She is the director of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative at Grand Challenges Canada. [1]

Contents

Wolfe is founding partner of Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto, [4] which is a group of midwives who offer maternity care to women, particularly those from Toronto's downtown area and from the Indigenous community. [5] Wolfe was a co-lead on the midwifery-led and Indigenous-governed Toronto Birth Centre. [6] Wolfe is Anishnawbe (Ojibway) from the Brunswick House First Nation in northern Ontario. [1] [7] [8]

Education

Wolfe earned her master’s in business administration from the Rotman School of Management [1] at the University of Toronto.

Career

From 1999 to 2003, Wolfe was an Outpost Nurse in Sioux Lookout and Moose Factory.

Wolfe, with her fellow Indigenous midwifery students Cheryllee Bourgeois and Ellen Blais, started the Toronto Aboriginal Midwives Initiative in 2002, and held community meetings and consultations to determine what the Native community wanted and needed. [9]

She worked as a midwife for the Midwives Collective Toronto [10] from 2003 to 2005. She was Head Midwife in the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sunnybrook Women's College Hospital from 2005 to January 2012. From November 2012 to December 2013 she was Interim Executive Director and Midwife Project Co-Lead at the Toronto Birth Centre Inc. The Toronto Birth Centre provides pre-natal classes, labour, birth and postpartum care, complimentary breast-feeding support, massage therapy and nutritional counselling. [11]

In collaboration with St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Wolfe and Seventh Generation Midwives took on a three-year research project to address infant mortality and child removal rates that are higher in Indigenous communities compared to the general population in Canada. Called The Baby Bundle Project, the goal of the research was to improve services for Indigenous families. [6] While identifying barriers to access, the research also worked to identify and provide for mothers' needs, such as midwifery, housing, counselling, or culturally specific traditions. [12] [13]

Wolfe co-led a four-year research project about Indigenous people in Toronto that identified undercounting by Statistics Canada. [14] [15] [16]

In 2020, the Indigenous Innovation Initiative, of which Sara Wolfe is the director, was launched. The goal is to promote Indigenous economic participation and innovation [17]

Select bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midwifery</span> Pregnancy and childbirth-related profession

Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many countries, midwifery is a medical profession. A professional in midwifery is known as a midwife.

TVO, formerly known as TVOntario, is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates flagship station CICA-DT in Toronto, which also relays programming across portions of Ontario through eight rebroadcast stations. All pay television providers throughout Ontario are required to carry TVO on their basic tier, and programming can be streamed for free online within Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ina May Gaskin</span> American midwife

Ina May Gaskin is an American midwife who has been described as "the mother of authentic midwifery." She helped found the self-sustaining community, The Farm, with her husband Stephen Gaskin in 1971 where she markedly launched her career in midwifery. She is known for the Gaskin Maneuver, has written several books on midwifery and childbirth, and continues to educate society through lectures and conferences and spread her message of natural, old-age inspired, fearless childbirth.

The Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) was founded in April 1982 to build cooperation among midwives and to promote midwifery as a means of improving health care for North American women and their families. Its stated goal is to unify and strengthen the profession of midwifery, thereby improving the quality of health care for women, babies, and communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angélique du Coudray</span> French pioneering midwife

Angélique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray was an influential, pioneering midwife during her lifetime, who gained fame when men were taking over the field. She rose from middle-class origins to become noticed and commissioned by King Louis XV himself.

Midwives in the United States assist childbearing women during pregnancy, labor and birth, and the postpartum period. Some midwives also provide primary care for women including well-woman exams, health promotion, and disease prevention, family planning options, and care for common gynecological concerns. Before the turn of the 20th century, traditional midwives were informally trained and helped deliver almost all births. Today, midwives are professionals who must undergo formal training. Midwives in the United States formed the Midwifery Education, Regulation, and Association task force to establish a framework for midwifery.

Mary Francis Hill Coley was an American lay midwife who ran a successful business providing a range of birth services and who starred in a critically acclaimed documentary film used to train midwives and doctors. Her competence projected an image of black midwives as the face of an internationally esteemed medical profession, while working within the context of deep social and economic inequality in health care provided to African Americans. Her life story and work exist in the context of Southern granny midwives who served birthing women outside of hospitals.

Sherrill Elizabeth Tekatsitsiakawa “Katsi”Cook is a Mohawk Native American midwife, environmentalist, Native American rights activist, and women's health advocate. She is best known for her environmental justice and reproductive health research in her home community, the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne in upstate New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midwife</span> Medical professional who practices obstetrics as a health science

A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronnie Lichtman</span> American midwife, educator and womens health advocate

Ronnie Sue Lichtman, is a midwife, educator, writer and advocate for women's health. She has published widely for both lay and professional audiences. The Chair of the Midwifery Education Program at The State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center in New York City, she earned a Ph.D. in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and her MS in Maternity Nursing with a specialization in midwifery from Columbia University School of Nursing. She previously directed the midwifery programs at Columbia University and Stony Brook University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Joyce Ely</span> American nurse (1889–1979)

Victoria Joyce Ely was an American nurse who served in World War I in the Army Nurse Corps and then provided nursing services in the Florida Panhandle in affiliation with the American Red Cross. To address the high infant and maternal death rates in Florida in the 1920s, she lectured and worked at the state health office. Due to her work, training improved for birth attendants and death rates dropped. After 15 years in the state's service, she opened a rural health clinic in Ruskin, Florida, providing both basic nursing services and midwife care. The facility was renamed the Joyce Ely Health Center in her honor in 1954. In 1983, she was inducted into Florida Public Health Association's Hall of Memory and in 2002 was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame.

A death midwife, or death doula, is a person who assists in the dying process, much like a midwife or doula does with the birthing process. It is often a community based role, aiming to help families cope with death through recognizing it as a natural and important part of life. The role can supplement and go beyond hospice. Practitioners perform a large variety of service, including but not limited to creating death plans, and providing spiritual, psychological, and social support before and just after death. Their role can also include more logistical activities, helping with services, planning funerals and memorial services, and guiding mourners in their rights and responsibilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwendolyn Spencer</span>

Gwendolyn Spencer, OD was a nurse and midwife, who co-founded the Jamaican Midwives' Association. An advocate for professionalism, she was instrumental in developing training programs for midwives and establishing a professional pay grade from the government for their services. She received the Order of Distinction for her contributions to healthcare in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray Enkin</span> Canadian physician and writer (1924–2021)

Murray W. Enkin was a Canadian physician and writer. He was born in Toronto, Ontario, and studied medicine at the University of Toronto and later specialized as an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. He was a professor, philosopher, activist, public speaker and author, who contributed to the fields of maternal care and childbirth, and evidence-based medicine.

Nicolle Gonzales is a Navajo certified midwife. She is currently in the process of opening the nation's first Native American birthing center in her home state, New Mexico.

Donna Hartz is an Aboriginal Australian midwife, academic and member of the Kamilaroi peoples of north eastern New South Wales. She grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney.

Cheryllee Bourgeois, R.M., is a Métis midwife and educator.

Carol Couchie, RM, is Nishnawbe Kwe and a registered midwife from Nipissing First Nation. She is a member of the first graduating class of Ryerson University's midwifery program in 1998. She is the first Indigenous woman to become a registered midwife in Ontario. She has previously served as chair of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada's Aboriginal Health Issues Committee. She helped found the Association of Aboriginal Midwives and she helped establish the Aboriginal Midwifery Education Program at the University College of the North. She serves as co-lead of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM). She currently practices as a member of K'Tigaaning Midwives, located at Nipissing First Nation.

Janet Smylie a Métis family medicine physician. She is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Advancing Generative Health Services for Indigenous Populations in Canada at St. Michael's Hospital.

Susan Gail James is a Canadian nurse and midwife, a "Canadian leader in [the] field of midwifery". From 1999 to 2019 she was director of the midwifery school at Laurentian University.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sara Wolfe". Brookfield Institute. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  2. ↑ Mothers of the Nations: Indigenous Mothering as Global Resistance, Reclaiming and Recovery. Anderson, Kim, 1964-, Lavell-Harvard, D. Memee. Bradford, Ontario. ISBN   9781926452364. OCLC   959328002.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ↑ Lee-Shanok, Philip (Jan 8, 2019). "New Regent Park program provides holistic support for new Indigenous moms". CBC.
  4. ↑ Seventh Generation Midwives
  5. ↑ "New report finds critical gap in data about Toronto's urban Indigenous community". CBC News. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  6. 1 2 Lee-Shanok, Philip (2019-01-08). "New Regent Park program provides holistic support for new Indigenous moms". CBC News. Retrieved 2020-08-25.
  7. ↑ "SGMT - Our People". www.sgmt.ca/sara-wolfe/. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  8. ↑ "In Ontario, midwives help with the rebirth of Indigenous pregnancy care" . Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  9. ↑ "Midwives help bring new life to Toronto" . Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  10. ↑ Midwives Collective Toronto
  11. ↑ "Ontario Newsroom". news.ontario.ca. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  12. ↑ Easton, Megan (2019-04-24). "Delivering Help to Indigenous Parents | University of Toronto Magazine". University of Toronto Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  13. ↑ "TVO | Current affairs, documentaries and education". www.tvo.org. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Rhiannon (Feb 28, 2018). "New report finds critical gap in data about Toronto's urban Indigenous community". CBC.
  15. ↑ Carter, Adam (Sep 30, 2021). "Indigenous people in Toronto badly undercounted by census, but experts hopeful for change". CBC.
  16. ↑ "Opinion | Census vastly undercounts Indigenous population in Toronto, study says". The Toronto Star. 2018-01-24. ISSN   0319-0781 . Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  17. ↑ Zingel, Avery (May 13, 2020). "Indigenous Innovation Initiative will award up to $250K to projects for gender equality". CBC News. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.