BACKGROUND:
Indigenous populations worldwide have less access to healthcare and tend to experience poorer health outcomes than non-Indigenous populations. This is not only due to barriers to access to care but also due to a lack of culturally safe care, poor quality of care and the prevalence of structural violence perpetrated against Indigenous individuals

OBJECTIVES:
This study aims to understand and raise Indigenous women’s voices regarding their birthing and prenatal care experiences, with a specific focus on an Indigenous group, the Ikolen-Gavião, in the Amazon Rainforest of Rondônia State, Brazil.

METHODS:
This qualitative research project consists of a secondary analysis of interviews conducted in Brazil led by a research team at the University of Rio Grande do Sul, as part of a broader study coordinated by the Peruvian Indigenous Association – Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú/CHIRAPAQ. The resulting data were suitable for secondary analysis to understand the participants’ birth experiences and what influenced them.

RESULTS:
The analysis found that Indigenous women in this region experience stigma, obstetric violence and harmful healthcare practices with maternity professionals in hospital. Their childbirth experiences are often traumatic, leading to avoidance of biomedical healthcare.

CONCLUSIONS:
In Brazil, Indigenous health workers have been instituted to address inequity of access, but the impact may be limited without reform in the maternity system. The study highlights a need to promote culturally and physiologically safe care through integrating traditional midwives with formal maternity care and professional midwifery to prevent harmful practices. Further research should assess the experience of Indigenous health agents to understand how support them in promoting access to more culturally respectful care.

KEY MESSAGE:
To increase awareness that quality can be achieved only through culturally safe and humanised care, health professionals need to reflect on their practice, culture, and the impacts of these aspects of care. Poster session 4 (Group B)