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Bridging Information and Resources to Transform Health for South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã parents - Understanding, Normalizing and Integrating Traditional birthing practices to Elevate health

Project Summary: BIRTH-SD-UNITE will document traditional birthing practices and ceremonies to prevent further loss of sacred practices from American Indian culture. We will work with the nine tribes of the land now called South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã to document unique birthing practices and ceremonies to create a written record which will be shared back to each tribe for their preservation.

An American Indian student at SDSU will be mentored by the project director on best practices for accurate and culturally sensitive information collection, documentation, and sharing. Once the information is collected, it will serve also as the foundation for work to develop training and education for medical providers throughout South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã to improve understanding of American Indian birthing practices. This work will be done to decrease the stigma surrounding these practices and to integrate them into the standards of care of modern medical facilities throughout the state. Our hope is that increased awareness and the integration of these practices into standards of care will lessen the impact of existing disparities.

BIRTH-SD-UNITE is funded through a Wokini Challenge Grant, which fund innovative projects and research that align with the Wokini Five-Year plan. Learn more about the Wokini Initiative.

Project Rationale: BIRTH-SD-UNITE is a critical project for documenting the traditional birthing practices of the Lakota, à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã, and Nakota peoples of South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã. Dating back to the beginning of the boarding school era, when American Indians were forced to assimilate their children, traditional birthing practices and ceremonies began to be lost. Today, these practices remain at risk of being lost forever if they are not documented and retaught.

Additionally, American Indians in South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã experience high rates of health disparities surrounding maternal and child health. A recent report from the State Department of Health indicates that the highest rates of pregnancy-associated death and infant death from 2012-2021 occurred in Oglala Lakota County, despite having a fraction of the population of other South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã counties. Furthermore, it is estimated that discrimination contributed to 37.5% of all pregnancy-associated deaths in South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã (South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã Department of Health, 2023). Documenting traditional birthing practices will make it possible to educate Western medical providers and allow these practices to be integrated into standards of care for American Indian patients. If providers are educated about traditional birthing practices, understanding can be improved, and stigma can be reduced, enabling health outcomes to improve for American Indians.

Project Director

Co-Investigator