Indigenous-led + culturally relevant midwifery care on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ territories
Huckleberry Services
WHAT IS HUCKLEBERRY MIDWIFERY?
Huckleberry Midwives is a collective of Registered Midwives providing Indigenous led pregnancy, birth, and after baby medical care for up to 8 weeks postpartum. Our prenatal and postpartum visits are offered at our Strathcona Midwifery Collective and Lu’ma Medical Center clinics. We offer home visits in the postpartum period for clients who live within our catchment of the City of Vancouver*. We offer both home birth and hospital birth at BC Women’s Hospital.
Registered midwives order and prescribe under the BC Health Professions Act with expanded certification in hormonal contraceptives.
All midwifery services are covered under BC’s public health insurance.
*We make exceptions to our catchment on a case by case basis. If you live out of catchment but are interested in care, you may still fill out our intake form. We welcome the opportunity to have an initial visit.
Primary perinatal Care
We offer primary medical care for families throughout pregnancy, birth, and for 6 weeks postpartum. In pregnancy, we follow the prenatal visit schedule seeing clients every 4-6 weeks in first and second trimester and every 2-3 weeks in third trimester. We offer 24/7 on-call availability. We can order and prescribe routine pregnancy tests and medications. For clients with complex health we share care with obstetricians (OB) or maternal fetal medicine (MFM) specialists .
Indigenous-led midwifery care
Indigenous midwives have practiced on these lands since time immemorial. Indigenous-led midwifery care means that our team is a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous midwives who follow Indigenous leadership. It is important to us to align our practice to the values and protocols of the lands we are on and honour the Host Nations in our work.
Culturally relevant care
We do our best to tailor your care to where you come from and what is important to you. We do this by connecting our Indigenous clients to Indigenous doulas, Elders, cultural programs/resources, etc. Where possible, we connect our clients to care providers from their own Nation. All of the midwives on our team have extensive cultural awareness training and experience. We are always learning and growing our practice through professional development, guidance from clients and community and inter-professional clinical teaching.
Pregnancy Loss and termination
We provide supportive care for clients experiencing a loss and/or termination and can help navigate care options during this time. We provide supportive care to clients accessing the Early Pregnancy Loss Clinic or CARE program at BC Women’s.
Birth Evacuation Referrals
We support and advocate for the return of birth to all Indigenous, remote, and rural communities in Canada. If transfer from your community to Vancouver occurs, we reserve 2 spaces per month for late to care referrals in second and third trimester so that Indigenous birthers leaving their community to birth have priority Indigenous-led care in the city. We offer both primary and shared care with an OB or maternal fetal medicine (MFM) at BC Women’s for families with more complex pregnancies.
Postpartum Only
We offer primary care for 6 weeks including postpartum home visits for the first week followed by clinic visits. We support with breastfeeding and transition including consults to lactation consultants, pediatricians, and obstetrics.
HuckleBerry Midwives 