A hospital bed is not the same as care.
Care is warm. It is informed. It honors where you come from and what you carry. It does not make you explain yourself before it helps you. It does not look at your skin color and change its tone.
For too many BIPOC and Indigenous women in Alberta, the hospital bed is there — but the care is not.
The statistics are not small. Racialized and Indigenous mothers in Canada face higher rates of complications during childbirth. They experience more barriers to accessing culturally safe care. They carry a distrust of systems that have, historically and recently, failed them.
And they are often silent about it. Not because it doesn’t hurt. But because speaking up has not always been safe.
Freedom Tree’s Bridging the Gap program is designed to change what these mothers experience — before, during, and after birth.
Hospital advocacy. Pregnancy support. Birthing classes. Postpartum care. Access to doulas and midwives who understand their community. Anti-racism education for healthcare providers. Financial assistance and travel support for those who need it.
And underneath all of it: the message that you do not have to fight alone for the care you deserve.
You should never have had to fight at all.
Support Bridging the Gap. Give to Freedom Tree today.