Naana Afua Jumah

1 INTRODUCTION Until the 1960s, many Indigenous women living in Northwestern Ontario, Canada gave birth in their home communities. These were moments of celebration and provided the mother and the newborn with invaluable community support.1 After this time, a policy of evacuation for birth was implemented, forcing women to deliver away from their family and community.2 Only six towns in the region provide maternity services and most care providers are non-Indigenous.

Abstract Background: First Nations peoples in Ontario are facing increasing rates of cancer and have been found to have poorer survival. Cancer screening is an important strategy to improve cancer outcomes; yet, Indigenous people in Canada are less likely to participate in screening. Ontario has established organized breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening programs; this paper examines the health policy context that informs these programs for First Nations peoples in the province.

Opioid dependence in pregnancy is an increasingly common occurrence in rural and remote areas such as Northwestern Ontario, Canada, where up to 28% of pregnancies are exposed to opioid use.1 Our catchment area of 30?000 patients includes 25?000 patients in remote communities who are mostly Indigenous and receive their initial pregnancy care at the nursing station in their community.2 Methadone treatment has the most evidence regarding safety and efficacy in pregnancy;3 ,4 however, due to...