Conception of a Resource: Creating a Community-based Online Healthy Living “App” to Support Urban Aboriginal Women During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a time period of increased health information seeking behaviours. There is limited literature on the availability and use of physical activity resources for urban Aboriginal women during pregnancy, a population that experiences a disproportionate burden of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

This seminar will present a qualitative, community based participatory research (CBPR) study that culminated in the development of a community requested/led, culturally safe online application for pregnant Aboriginal women. The findings suggest that Aboriginal women are marginalized in existing pregnancy physical activity resources and that mobile technologies should be considered as tools for addressing health inequities.

BIO: Dr. Francine Darroch is a Killam postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Colleen Varcoe and Dr. Annette Browne. She recently completed her PhD in Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. Her PhD research engaged with CBPR and postcolonial feminism to address health disparities with/for urban Aboriginal women in Ottawa.