The RESPCCT study, from the well-respected Birth Place Lab in Vancouver, BC is recruiting participants from across Canada to answer questions about their pregnancy and birth experiences in the past 10 years.  What makes this research unique is that a multistakeholder team that included service users from diverse backgrounds, identities, and circumstances spent two years to develop this survey that is person-centered and was designed through a lens that is person-centered and elevates the perspectives and voices of those most marginalized.  The timeliness of this survey is appropriate, as the topic of respectful care for disenfranchised communities is finally front and center across the globe. “RESPCCT” is the working name for “Research Examining the Stories of Pregnancy and Childbearing in Canada Today.”

The RESPCCT team shares that:

“Very little is known about how people experience care during pregnancy and childbirth across Canada, especially among people with various identities, circumstances and backgrounds. Differences in experiences and outcomes across communities may be linked to access to care, their individual health status, and/or how they are treated. We do not know for sure, and there is very little research that has asked community members to decide on what is most important to study and understand.

In the RESPCCT study, a diverse group of people who had recent pregnancy experiences created or chose the questions to ask. They worked with researchers and community-based organizations to develop this survey, and to reach people across Canada who want to tell their stories of pregnancy and childbearing.”

It is important that the voices of indigenous people, people of color, people with disabilities, and those who come from the LGBTQIA2S+ community who all became parents in the past ten years are included in the survey responses.  In order to be sure that these under resourced and often excluded communities have a full opportunity to participate, the RESPCCT team has created a team of Regional Recruitment Coordinators across Canada who are positioned to reach the very people often ignored and invite them to participate. You can learn more about this team here.  The survey is currently available in both English and French, with plans to make it available in many other languages such as Inuktitut, Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Arabic, Spanish soon.

You can help with recruitment for this study by sharing information and encouraging people who have experienced a birth in the past ten years to participate.  The wider reaching this survey is shared, the more likely it will be that the responses will reflect a diverse set of experiences.  From those results, more effective and appropriate care guidelines can be created that truly both improve outcomes but sensitively meet the needs of those who are receiving care through culturally appropriate best practices.

You can find graphics and other information that makes it easy to share this study on various social media channels on the RESPCCT website.  You can visit the survey here.  Please consider amplifying the recruitment signal so that the information collected is representative of everyone’s experiences.  I look forward to reading the published research when the results are released.  Thank you for sharing amongst your networks in Canada.

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