In this Kanien’kehá:ka birth helpers collective, women are empowering each other – CBC

Mar 11, 2024

Group aims to transform their community through maternal support, traditional teachings

Helping empower women is at the heart of what a collective of Kanien’kehá:ka birth helpers are doing in their community.

They’re called Konwati’shatstenhsherawi’s, which means “women are giving each other power” in Kanien’kéha, or the Mohawk language.

“We’re communal people,” said Jody Jacobs, who is part of the collective which is based in Kahnawà:ke, south of Montreal.

“After colonization, our families sort of separated. As the generations have gone on, there are no longer many multi-generational homes and we’re all sort of nuclear.”

Jacobs is one of four co-instructors with the collective who are training a new cohort of birth helpers to provide non-medical maternal support and education to expecting parents and their families throughout pregnancy, labour, and postpartum.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/birth-helpers-kahnawake-women-1.7138194