title: Health/Service Providers' Perspectives on Barriers to Healthy Weight Gain and Physical Activity in Pregnant, Urban First Nations Women.
abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine health/service providers' perspectives of barriers to healthy weight gain and physical activity for urban, pregnant First Nations women in Ottawa, Canada. Through the use of semi-structured interviews, we explored 15 health/service providers' perspectives on the complex barriers their clients face. By using a postcolonial feminist lens and a social determinants of health framework, we identified three social determinants of health that the health/service providers believed to have the greatest influence on their clients' weight gain and physical activity during pregnancy: poverty, education, and colonialism. Our findings are then contextualized within existing Statistics Canada and the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study data. We found that health/service providers are in a position to challenge colonial relations of power. We conclude by urging health/service providers, researchers, and policymakers alike to take into consideration the ways in which these social determinants of health and their often synergistic effects affect urban First Nations women during pregnancy.
authors.affiliation: University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada fdarr023@uottawa.ca.
authors.forename: Francine E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Darroch
authors.affiliation: University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Audrey R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Giles
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000523:psychology*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009864:Ontario; D011203:Poverty; D011247:Pregnancy; D037841:Pregnant People / Q000523:psychology*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D014505:Urban Population; D015430:Weight Gain
keywords: Aboriginal people, North America; determinants of health; equality, inequality; exercise; feminism; gender; health care, relationships; obesity, overweight; pregnancy, reproduction; relationships; research, qualitative; social issues; well-being