Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 27, 2007

IQALUIT - The Ajunnginiq Centre launched a trilingual midwifery website last week, which supporters say will help strengthen the ties among midwives throughout the Inuit regions.

"This will be a very good communication tool for the communities and interested parties," said Natsiq Kango, head of the Midwives Association of Nunavut. "There is a lot of interest, but there aren't a lot of outlets for it. The technology in place today, this is going to provide a real channel for this."

The Irnisuksiiniq-Inuit Midwifery site, located at www.inuitmidwifery.ca, has information in English, French and Inuktitut.

It provides a listing of related events, reports and news, like an announcement for the maternal care course to be offered this year at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit.

Inuktitut translation was done with advice from elders on traditional birthing terms, according to Ajunnginiq project co-ordinator, Catherine Carry.

The material will also be of use to nurses, nutritionists and other workers connected to maternal health, she said.

"Hopefully this will be a very good influence to the young people who are interested," Kango said.

More and more people are attracted to the profession and its services, according to Judith Paradis-Pastori, co-ordinator of the new midwifery program at Iqaluit's Nunatta campus.

Six students have been accepted for September, and that number was only limited by the need to provide them with appropriate work terms, she explained.

"Midwives are now starting to come out from the ditch they were buried in," Kango said. "Before, their skills, their knowledge were not taken into consideration with our old government, but now, slowly, this young government is trying to pull out those essential skills."