Editor’s note: The following birth story is compelling, raw and emotional. It does contain some graphic details related to childbirth and delivery-room trauma. 
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When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted a home birth. I?m an Anishinaabe woman from Pawgwasheeng (Pays Plat First Nation) in Northwestern Ontario, and I now live on Poundmaker Cree Nation, close to North Battleford, Saskatchewan. 
In our traditional kinship systems, pregnancy and birth are considered sacred times. Prior to the pregnancy is even considered sacred, as families are to plan, pray, and prepare for the baby years in advance. But because of the impacts of colonialism, many of these teachings have been forgotten. 
Along with these shifts and changes, Indigenous birthing mothers often experience negative treatment by the medical system. And it?s not just small micro-aggressions, or doctors who show anti-Indigenous bias?extensive forced or coerced sterilization of Indigenous women and girls dates back to the 1970s, or earlier. The International Justice Resource Centre has published reports on more recent cases in the province of Saskatchewan between 2008 and 2012 (and some newer research has found it continues to happen today).  For me, living on land that colonialism has labelled ?rural Saskatchewan,? I knew that in colonial medical institutions, the sacredness of Indigenous birthing is more often than not neglected, dismissed, and abandoned. I wanted to do my best to override that neg...