Black Lives Matter

West End Midwives stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and all of those speaking out against anti-black racism.

As midwives serving diverse communities in the North West part of Toronto - we serve some of the most marginalized communities in the country. We see in our daily work how poverty disproportionately effects Black communities. As midwives we have been witness to higher policing, higher Children’s Aid involvement and poorer care in the healthcare system. In addition, working with many people without health insurance - we see first hand how discriminatory immigration policies impact racialized and Black communities the most. Moreover, how pregnancy related complications are higher for people from Black communities. This is an ongoing problem that is not addressed in our health care system. We need to ask why in 2020, Black pregnant people have poorer outcomes than Caucasian people. We need to understand how anti-Black racism effects our clients and impacts their health.

West End Midwives was opened with the goal of serving marginalized populations - particularly newer immigrants and those who are racialized.

We are committed to providing the best care to all of our clients and we recognize that this does not only mean providing the best clinical care, but standing up for issues that impact our clients. 

We are committed to being the best midwives we can be and this includes standing against anti-Black racism. More importantly, it means doing the work of looking at ourselves. We need to make sure we dismantle anti-Black racism at every level - from our policies, to our practices to how we advocate for our clients within the healthcare system.  

We also recognize that this is a time for solidarity from other immigrant communities. As many of us are immigrants, and we serve many immigrant communities, we feel it is important to recognize the different impacts colonialism has had on Black and Indigenous people in North America. Many of us may have been victims of colonization in our places of origin. 

This is a time to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. The times we live in call us to focus on this issue right now - George Floyd’s killing in the USA has put a spot light on police brutality against black people that has existed for decades. We must all stand up for each other and right now that means standing for Black Lives Matter.

With this statement, we pledge that West End Midwives will continuously take action to learn and speak out against racial injustices and promote anti-racist actions in our community.