Community workers need to reach out to at-risk parents to reduce BC's high aboriginal infant mortality rates, according to the deputy provincial health officer.
Dr. Evan Adams said it's not difficult to provide the proper support and education for mothers both before and after they've had their babies, but that it needs to be done right.
Currently, babies born to status Indians in BC's northern interior region have almost five times the chance of dying between their first month of life and their first birthday, compared to the rest of the population.
"There are a number of things we can do to reach aboriginal moms, one of them is to make our services culturally sensitive or culturally safe," he said. "That means having workers who are knowledgeable and have some skills and experience with aboriginal mothers."
There are a number of programs in place locally to do just that. The Prince George Native Friendship Centre has support services for mothers and families. The infant development program at AiMHi also serves aboriginal clients by making home visits.
"The nature of being a home visitor means you're tailoring the service based on the family's needs," infant development consultant Lisa Engstrom said. "Every family has its own culture and being that we're welcomed into a family's home, that's how we tailor the service to be culturally aware and culturally competent."
Adams said providing more funding for extra outreach for at-risk mothers isn't universally accepted.
"It's a little bit controversial, in that we're managing risk," he said.
"Some people have a value system where by everyone is treated the same. Some people would argue, 'why is this young expectant mother getting all this help, investment, attention, staff, when I didn't get that when I gave birth?'"
Yet the numbers indicate the situation with First Nations families needs to be addressed.
The post-neonatal mortality rate -- which refers to babies between the age of one month and one year -- was 5.2 per 1,000 live births for babies born to status Indians in the northern interior between 2002-06, but only 1.1 for all other infants in the region according to the most recent figures from the provincial government.
Including the first month of life, the regional infant mortality rate for status Indians in the first year was 9.0, but just 3.8 for the general population. In the province as a whole the rate was 8.7 for status Indians and 3.9 for everyone else.
The figures only looked at status Indians, not all aboriginal groups.
The situation isn't unique to BC.
A recent study of infant health among the First Nations population in Quebec yielded similar results.
The silver lining is the infant mortality rate has been decreasing for First Nations babies in BC -- province-wide it's down from 11.8 in 1993.
"Aboriginal birth outcomes are significantly worse than those of non-Aboriginal populations across every major birth outcome," University of Toronto professor Janet Smylie wrote in a report on the issue released this week. "This is not only unfortunate, but unnecessary and unjust, as these adverse aboriginal birth outcomes are clearly linked to underlying and potentially-reversible disparities in the social determinants of health and access to health services."
