Kirsty Bourret
Affiliated to Research
E-mail: kirsty.bourret@ki.se
Telephone: +46852482498
Visiting address: Widerströmska huset, hiss 1, plan 9 Tomtebodavägen 18A, 17177 Stockholm
Postal address: K6 Kvinnors och barns hälsa, K6 NOGRH Klingberg-Allvin, 171 77 Stockholm
About me
- I am the 2021 recipient of the Forte International Postdoctoral Fellowship
[1]. My main research program at KI is: /"A health systems approach to
evaluating the impact of midwifery-led person-centred comprehensive abortion
care in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A mixed method and
quasi-experimental evaluation". /This project is a scale-up of my doctoral
research: /"Midwives' [2] integration of manual vacuum aspiration for
post-abortion care in the Kinshasa and Kongo Central provinces of the
Democratic Republic of Congo". /
Throughout my doctoral schooling, I was faculty with the Ontario Midwifery
Education Program where I taught since 2007. I graduated with a BHSc in
midwifery in Canada in 2006 and practiced throughout Canada until 2017. I
moved to Haiti in 2010 and began my family there. I moved back to Canada
with my two children in 2014.
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, School of Graduate Studies, Laurentian
University (2019)
[1] https://forte.se/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/international-postdoc-2021-05-19.pdf
[2] https://rdcu.be/cBzoJ
Research
- My research is collaborative, rights based and intersectional. It involves
many disciplines and organizations outside or overlapping with academia.
Where possible, I incorporate capacity building for midwife researchers.
For example, I have been a supportive member of the midwifery association in
the DRCongo since 2017 when I began working with them as a technical
consultant via the Canadian Association of Midwives [1]. My doctoral work
was born from our relationship and I worked closely with the association and
Congolese midwife researchers to understand how abortion care was being
actively applied in the field by their members. Building research capacity
for midwives and research by midwives is my underlying priority.
I am also an adjunct scientist at the McMaster Midwifery Research Centre [2]
(Canada). Most importantly, how I do my work is more important than what I do
meaning I take a feminist and decolonizing intersectional approach to my
research which largely aims to take a health policy and systems approach to
improve the role of midwives in the providing broader sexual and reproductive
health and rights globally. My collaborative work has been recognized by
Global Affairs Canada [3] and BMJ Global Health [4]
[1] https://canadianmidwives.org/
[2] https://mmrc.mcmaster.ca/
[3] https://mmrc.mcmaster.ca/news-events/news/news-article/2021/06/23/midwifery-association-strengthening-critical-to-improving-sexual-reproductive-health-and-rights
[4] http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-011242