Huckleberry Midwives

04/06/2022

Welcome Huckleberry baby 🫐 Alíla7 Victoria Joseph-Currie who is Squamish, Snuneymuxw, Cree from Montana Indian Band, Blackfoot from Piikani, British and Jewish. Congrats to the proud parents Salia and Joe!

Words from Salia: “Alíla7 came into the world March 1st at 3:39am at home in bed, caught by her aunty Keisha. I am still feeling the joy thinking about the labour, and these first few weeks and the honour it has been to share this all with my birth team and be gifted our beautiful little wild rasberry.

I wanted to thank my team for being so incredibly thoughtful and present throughout my entire pregnancy, labour and postpartum. As we near being discharged, I look back on my care with the utmost reverence for my midwifery team. Keisha and I have been best friends for a long time but her care in this time has forever deepened our relationship and cemented a bond between her and our daughter Alíla7. The whole team is a gift and I couldn’t be more grateful for the care we received - it ruined me to go back to the regular health care system! haha, but I can use this time as the gold standard for the best health care I ever received and what a dream that it directly impacted the the first moments of our little one’s life. What more could you ask for.” 🫐

04/02/2022

Huckleberry Midwives is an Indigenous-led midwifery practice offering culturally relevant, full spectrum care during pregnancy, birth, postpartum and beyond on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-waututh territory in Vancouver, BC. We prioritize quality care for Indigenous families while also providing care for POC (people of colour) and non-Indigenous clients.

We are Indigenous & non-Indigenous/Settler midwives and birth workers who work collaboratively to offer equitable, high quality care during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. We are primary care providers, with a scope of practice similar to a Family Doctor but during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Although our patients are the birthing person and the baby, we care for the whole family, community, and extended relations.

Recognizing that we are guests on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territory, we hope to grow our practice by following local Indigenous leadership, protocols and values. Indigenous midwives have been practising here for thousands of years, and our goal is to support Indigenous midwifery through our practice by mentoring new Indigenous midwives and birth workers.

In addition to providing clinical midwifery care, we also provide more individualised care for BIPOC families including supporting access to BIPOC doulas, Indigenous medicines, traditional foods, relationships with Elders and connection to other community supports. Practising with Indigenous values means a slower kind of midwifery, taking more time to build relationships, individualise care and connect our clients to other good care in the community - visiting around as medicine! Because of this, we will have a smaller case load and our goal is to be able to have more time to spend with each of you! 🫐

04/02/2022

ay sweyel Huckleberry community!

As we enter this new spring season, we want to share some exciting (and bittersweet!) updates with you all. Tia Felix and Sarah Reaburn have moved on to some new and exciting things in their lives and are leaving the Huckleberry team. We have a new team of midwives to carry forward the vision and care of Huckleberry Midwives - including Cello who has been with Huckleberry for the last year. We have shared our bios introducing ourselves on the previous posts. We look forward to being of service to the families in our community and in the coming days, we will have more words to share about the future of Huckleberry and our love and respect for the work done by Tia and Sarah

04/02/2022

Keisha (she/her) 🫐

ay sweyel! I am a xwelmexw midwife from the Katzie First Nation gratefully living and offering care on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ territories. I attended my first birth in East Van 10 years ago and have been building my skills and knowledge as a birth worker/auntie ever since. In addition to clinical and community midwifery, I am an Indigenous Midwifery Lead at Vancouver Coastal Health and a founding member of the ekw’í7tl Doula Collective - a collective of Indigenous birth workers building capacity for our community and families in the context of reproductive health care - Indigi birth work sovereignty 🤍 I also enjoy working with plants, surfing (when I can!), making art, and cooking postpartum meals for my loved ones! I am looking forward to offering care to my relatives and community through this new role with Huckleberry Midwives.

04/02/2022

Beth (she/her) 🫐

I am a Settler midwife - 2nd generation Irish and Scottish, and a descendent of midwives. I have been working on the Brown Team at Pomegranate since inception in 2006, after graduating from the UBC Midwifery Program. I also hold a leadership position at BC Women’s Hospital as the Assistant Head of the Department of Midwifery. I have 2 children - ages 8 and 5 - and a sweet Husky dog that keeps me busy on my off time. I love being active and get excited to compete in age group triathlons. I have a working knowledge of ASL (American Sign Language) and am passionate about providing accessible midwifery care to the Deaf community.

04/02/2022

Amanda (she/her) 🫐

Hello! I am a settler midwife from Scottish and Irish descent. I graduated from the UBC Midwifery Program in 2014 and have worked at Pomegranate ever since. I have two children, ages 16 and 18. I am so grateful to be caring for your family.

04/02/2022

Cello (she/her) 🫐

Hello! My name is Cello (pronounced “Che-low”) and I am a settler midwife from Japanese and German/Ukrainian descent. I grew up here in xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ territories and am so grateful to be providing care to my home communities. After graduating from the Ryerson Midwifery Program, I started working at Strathcona Midwifery Collective on the Huckleberry Team with special focus on Indigenous families, youth, and non-insured clients. I happily continue this work at Pomegranate. In my off-call time I enjoy playing banjo, foraging in the woods, and gardening in my backyard.

04/02/2022

12/04/2020

Strathcona Midwifery Families Holiday Hamper Drive 2020

It is the time of year when many of our ancestral traditions provide us with practices to summon light in the darkest time. At Strathcona Midwifery Collective, we are inviting our much loved families to join us in sharing some holiday light for families who could use extra support, as we all face a long winter ahead.

We are hoping to raise $3000 in order to put together a number of holiday hampers. These boxes will include a variety of foods, some small presents as well as gift cards. The donations will be distributed by our Covid safe PPElves to families close to the winter Solstice (Dec 20,2020).

If you are able to donate gift cards or if you have a company/business that may have some products that would be enjoyed by families, please email: [email protected]

To donate money please etransfer: [email protected]

If you are a family who would appreciate a hamper, please reach out to your midwives or email [email protected] to arrange a drop off.if there are any extra funds, they will go into the Reproductive Justice fund we use to support families all year long.

Related to spreading some light- the members of the Strathcona collective would love to see and/share photos of holiday babies! Any holiday, any time of year, any age! Siblings and fur babies to be included! Feel free to send a message to post as well. These adorable photos will keep our hearts warm through the cold season.
Follow and send by message to our account stating permission to post.

Thanks for reading. We are sincerely wishing you and your families a season filled with warmth, safety and beautiful moments.

“May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.”

-John O'Donohue (from Beannacht)

With gratitude and care,

Strathcona Midwifery Collective

11/16/2020

May as well!

One lucky family will win a life-changing bundle.

07/19/2020

The Huckleberry Team had an amazing day celebrating Indigenous Month with these beautiful strong families, singers and Elder!

We are dedicated to supporting, caring and welcoming babies as we have always done! Thank you for this incredible journey so far!

Tia & Sarah

07/19/2020

We have the great honour to be working alongside this incredible matriarch. She welcomes our families and babies with such adoration, good medicine and love. Kukwstsamc Tsqe'tsten (Elder Relatives).

07/07/2020

Hello everyone, My name is Quill Christie-Peters and I am an Anishinaabeg ar… Quill Christie-Peters needs your support for Indigenous birth worker travel fund

07/01/2020

We are so grateful to Adam and Noal (and Rumi!) of At Films (https://www.folkfilmmaking.org/) for capturing some beautiful moments from the clinic blessing this week. Thank you to elder Roberta, Moonstone Drum Group, Cassie (Bramble and Birth Doula Services), Ekwi7tl Doula Collective (https://ekwi7tldoulacollective.org), FRAFCA Birthkeepers (https://frafca.org/prgrm_svc/prenatal/), Lu'ma Medical Centre, Simone the amazing photographer, Salmon and Bannock Bistro and to the Strathcona Midwifery Collective and to all the people who donated to support the event.

Thank you so much to the families who were able to make it and we hope you enjoyed the day. We hope to put together another event in the future for those who couldnt make it.

You really lifted our hearts, and filled the space with so much beauty and life.

Kukwstsamc! Thank you!

06/22/2020