Indigenous women face many barriers to maternal care during pregnancy in Canada. A participatory study was conducted in two First Nations Communities in Nova Scotia, Canada to gain new knowledge about Mi’kmaw women’s experiences of living with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Relational ethics helped guide this journey. In this paper we describe how Indigenous and Western approaches were used to understand Mi’kmaw women’s experiences with GDM. It was important to us that the research methodology facilitated building relationship and trust. This led to an openness and willingness of the women to express their concerns and offer ways to address GDM in their communities. The challenges of blending Indigenous approaches with Western research are also discussed in the paper. The foundational principles that were used during this research included: 1) Staying true to my word; 2) Mutual Trust; 3) Mutual Respect; 4) Being Flexible; 5) Being Non judgemental; 6) Working in partnership; 7) Taking time to explain; 8) Promoting autonomy; and 9) Genuine connectiveness. The findings revealed that the research assisted the Mi’kmaw women in understanding their experiences in new ways and helped to build capacity so that they could take action to improve their health, while sustaining their Mi’kmaw culture.

在加拿大，土著妇女在孕期面临孕产妇保健的许多障碍。在加拿大新斯科舍省的两个第一民族社区中进行了一项参与性研究，以获取有关Mi'kmaw妇女的妊娠糖尿病（GDM）生活经验的新知识。关系伦理学引导了这一过程。在本文中，我们描述了如何使用土著和西方方法来了解Mi'kmaw妇女在GDM中的经历。对我们而言重要的是，研究方法有助于建立关系和信任。这导致了妇女公开和愿意表达自己的关切，并提供了解决社区中GDM的方法。本文还讨论了将本土方法与西方研究相融合的挑战。这项研究中使用的基本原则包括：1）忠于我的诺言；2）互信；3）相互尊重；4）具有灵活性；5）缺乏判断力；6）合作关系；7）花时间解释；8）促进自治；9）真正的联系。调查结果表明，这项研究帮助米克摩妇女以新的方式理解了她们的经历，并帮助他们建立了能力，使她们能够采取行动改善自身健康，同时维持米克摩文化。