ABSTRACT
In Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada, the impact of colonisation has resulted in profound disparities in health and social well-being between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. This chapter discusses the perinatal health of Indigenous women and babies with a focus on three countries: Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It emphasises the impact of colonisation on the health of Indigenous populations and describe disparity in social and health outcomes for Indigenous peoples compared with non-Indigenous people including perinatal outcomes. The chapter discusses the key characteristics of positive policy and service responses and identifies the strategies aimed at promoting psychosocial resilience and optimising health outcomes for Indigenous childbearing women, their babies and families in these countries. Social reforms introduced in 1988 based on the three principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, now underpin many social and health reforms in New Zealand - and unlike other Indigenous peoples discussed in this chapter, New Zealand is a truly bicultural nation.
