Embedding LGBTQIA+ health equity in midwifery education: A holistic whole-of-programme approach

Skilled midwifery care for LGBTQIA+ people is a human right, however LGBTQIA+ people have been under-served in perinatal care by the privileging of cisgender heterosexual endosex women as recipients of care. The education of midwives and other professionals to provide LGBTQIA+ inclusive care is a critical component of wider strategies to address LGBTQIA+ discrimination in perinatal care. This paper responds to this challenge by discussing an innovative and holistic approach to introducing and embedding LGBTQIA+ health equity into one midwifery education programme in Aotearoa New Zealand. This approach harnesses opportunities in both the formal and informal curriculum and draws on the conceptual frameworks of cultural safety and humility, intersectionality, and Indigenous justice. These frameworks have informed an on-going process of reflection on, and unlearning of, cis-heteronormativity and other systemic injustices when providing perinatal care to diverse populations, for both midwifery educators and students.