When the Masks Come Off in Canada and Guatemala: Will the Realities of Racism and Marginalization of Midwives Finally Be Addressed?

Betty-Anne Daviss,Iris Champet,Angela Ashawasegai,Tammy Roberts,Candace Leblanc,Laura Gamez,Bernadette Betchi

doi:10.3389/fsoc.2021.632053

Abstract

This article addresses the effects of COVID-19 in Eastern and Northern Ontario, Canada, with a comparative glimpse at the small province of Totonicapán, Guatemala, with which Canadians have been involved in obstetric and midwifery care in particular over the last 5 years. With universal health care coverage since 1966 and well-integrated midwifery, Canada's system would be considered relatively well set up to deal with a disaster like COVID-19 compared to low resource countries like Guatemala or countries without universal health care insurance (like the USA). However, the epidemic has uncovered the fact that in Ontario, Indigenous, Black, and People of Color (IBPOC), as elsewhere, may have been hardest hit, often not by actually contracting COVID-19, but by suffering secondary consequences. While COVID-19 could be an issue through which health care professionals can come together, there are signs that the medical hierarchies in many hospitals in both Ontario and Totonicapán are taking advantage of COVID-19 to increase interventive measures in childbirth and reduce midwives' involvement in hospitals. Meanwhile, home births are on the rise in both jurisdictions. Stories from a Jamaican Muslim woman in Ottawa, an Indigenous midwifery practice in Northern Ontario, registered midwives in Eastern Ontario, and about the traditional midwives in Guatemala reveal similar as well as unique problems resulting from the lockdowns. While this article is not intended to constitute an exhaustive analysis of social justice and human rights issues in Canada and Guatemala, we do take this opportunity to demonstrate where COVID-19 has become a catalyst that challenges the standard narrative, exposing the old ruts and blind spots of inequality and discrimination that our hierarchies and inadequate data collection—until the epidemic—were managing to ignore. As health advocates, we see signs that this pandemic is resulting in more open debate, which we hope will last long after it is over in both our countries.

Highlights

A GLIMPSE AT SOME OF THE SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES IN ONTARIO AND TOTONICAPÁN, GUATEMALAI was up late dealing with two births, exhausted, and developed a fever of 38.1 Celsius (100.6 Fahrenheit)
We can state that a comparison about pandemic effects between a province in a high resource country (Canada) and a low resource country (Guatemala) reveals similar problems and similar solutions
The first outstanding similarity is that Indigenous populations suffer marginalization in both Totonicapán and Ontario

Summary

INTRODUCTION

A GLIMPSE AT SOME OF THE SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES IN ONTARIO AND TOTONICAPÁN, GUATEMALA. Guatemala has the sixth-highest rate of chronic malnutrition (stunting or low height-for-age) in the world—at 47% percent—with the prevalence reaching around 70% in Totonicapán4—the Guatemalan province we wanted to compare with the province of Ontario, Canada Despite these large differences, comparisons can expose the good and the bad of any health care system, and this article reveals some surprising similarities between our two countries. We present an overview of how, with some success, we have dealt with COVID-19 in the province of Ontario, and how it has negatively affected populations with health and economic disparities, in particular IBPOC5 people, forcing, among other measures, racial/ethnic data retrieval to become a priority This Introduction is providing an overview and will explain how we came up with our methodology for the comparison. They fall prey to trying to mitigate a system that can either become increasingly abusive or more forgiving during a pandemic—or both—as we will describe below

Methodology

Summary of the North Channel

CONCLUSIONS

Findings

ETHICS STATEMENT