Indigenous birth support workers frustrated with lack of space, pay

Every year, about 1,100 families rely on the services of the Indigenous birth support workers at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon, and some of those workers are raising their voices over a lack of space and pay.

Three of the workers joined Independent MLA Betty Nippi-Albright at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina on Tuesday.

Read more:

• Saskatchewan doctors raise concerns about health-care pressures
• Pelican Narrows dog attacks by different animals, RCMP say
• Sask. updates human trafficking laws for hospitality, ride-share sectors

Indigenous birth support workers are doulas who support mothers and their families with prenatal care, labour, delivery and postpartum care, as well as helping families work through loss.

Summer Brass has been an Indigenous birth support worker since 2023. She said that in the seven years since the unit began operating, the workers have never had their own office space. They have to share, which Brass said means they don’t have the privacy they need to help patients, or space for their traditional tools and medicines.

The workers have a shared desk and a closet that they try to keep locked.

“A moss bag, someone might come in and just take it, give it to a patient without acknowledging us or asking if we can take it for them, or else they will create their own little smudge pan and just take it to a room and just drop it off there without proper protocols,” Brass explained.

Kecia Martell said the workers often have to shop for supplies on their own time.

“There have been times where we’ve requested to do these things on paid time, and it’s never been granted,” Martell said.

Both Brass and Martell said their pay isn’t adequate – they said they haven’t had a raise since 2019.

“With the cost of everything rising, it’s just hard for many of us workers to work the full 12-hour shifts and be able to live,” said Brass.

If they’re parking at the hospital, Martell said the cost is about the same as what they’re paid.

“It is basically costing us to come to work,” she said.

An online job posting for a part-time Indigenous birth support worker from the Saskatchewan Health Authority listed the pay at between $21.38 and $22.89 an hour.

The positions were created by the health authority in response to a number of negative stories about Indigenous mothers in Saskatchewan hospitals and subsequent calls to action. Martell, Brass, and their fellow worker Jessica Gardippi all agree the positions are needed.

Martell said the workers help support nurses and doctors, and help to bridge the gap between Western and Indigenous medicine.

Nippi-Albright brought their concerns to the Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill during Question Period on Tuesday.

“You can tell what a system values by what it makes room for. After seven years, the Indigenous birth support workers still don’t have a space,” Nippi-Albright told reporters in Regina.

Independent MLA Betty Nippi-Albright speaking to reporters in Regina on Nov. 3, 2026 (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Cockrill said the team does incredible work, and said the health authority wants to find ways to support them.

“The work that these folks do is pretty important, especially for women and families that are travelling from northern Saskatchewan a long way from home. Giving birth in the city of Saskatoon can be hours, a long flight away, or a very long drive from their home community,” said Cockrill

When asked about the office space issue, Cockrill noted that the team was created after the children’s hospital was built, and said the hospital is very focused on making sure they have as much space as possible.

He said the compensation issue is up to the workers’ bargaining unit.

Cockrill said a meeting had already been planned for Thursday, when the workers will be given an opportunity to discuss their concerns with the health authority.