Hello

Hey there! My name is Joan Deibert, and I am from Nunavut and Ontario. I previously called British Columbia my home but now reside in Fox Creek, Alberta. I am currently a stay-at-home full-time momma of four kids, but I have also worked in the pharmacy industry for 15+ years and have some finance experience.

My Role in the Research Team

I am Inuk, from Kinngait, and I have predominantly lived in rural and secluded settings. Indigenous people are often under-represented in research, and my role in the research team is to ensure that those perspectives are captured and that the research process is sensitive to people with traumatic histories. Having lived in rural and secluded regions with diverse motherhood journeys, I bring unique lived experiences to this team. I believe that patient-centred research is important to gain perspective from all types of care received so that the best possible care is created for a community.

My Experience with Pregnancy Care

My body has had the privilege of growing two incredible humans, one of whom is our own and one of whom is a surrogate baby. Both were born with the care of a midwife, though one was born in the hospital and one at a Birth Centre in Edmonton. I have also had the privilege of being present as a birth support person for the two incredible boys that we adopted. Both our adopted boys were born in a hospital setting with physician care.

COVID shut the world down while I was pregnant with our second baby (my first pregnancy). Thankfully, I was in the care of an incredible midwife whose voice I can still remember coaching me to rest in between contractions. Despite the stress from the pandemic and the fact that our planned home birth turned into a hospital birth, I knew I was well cared for in the hands of the midwife at home and at the hospital. Our son was born at 39 weeks and shares a birthdate with his namesake, which I thought was incredible timing!

I decided to be a surrogate several years later and knew that I needed to match with a family that was willing to have a midwife as a care provider and birth at a birth centre in order for me to have that needed personal experience. I was accepted into an Edmonton midwifery clinic, well cared for throughout, and had a beautiful water birth at 39 weeks at a birth centre.

My Vision for the Future

I believe the current system for birthing mothers needs to include more empowerment, and we need to start sharing the positives about birth and talk about the power that women hold. I hope for more informed pregnancy care to allow women to choose what happens to their bodies. When you approach the topic of ‘birth’ for not just the end goal (having a baby) and you speak about the whole process and experience, then women can be empowered to do what our bodies were built for.