94 | Dr. Kasey Tawhara on cultural safety, He Hono Wāhine & OBGYN

Dr. Kasey Tawhara (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Te Arawa, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Porou) is an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Rotorua Hospital, who is passionate about cultural safety and Māori health equity. She is a member of Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa (otherwise known as Te ORA) and a founding member of He Hono Wāhine.

In this episode, we discuss her journey into obstetric and gynaecology and the training involved, the MAPAS scheme,  what Māori health equity in O&G looks like, covering cultural safety (and the importance of prioritising this alongside clinical safety), traditional Māori birth practices and her mahi in He Hono Wāhine.

The papers mentioned can be found here:
Why cultural safety rather than cultural competency is required to achieve health equity: a literature review and recommended definition: https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12939-019-1082-3
 
Towards cultural safety, in Cultural Safety in Aotearoa New Zealand. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325920915_Cultural_Safety_in_Aotearoa_New_Zealand
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9117203/ 

Chapters

• 0:00 Kasey Tawhara
• 1:22 Finding medicine
• 4:32 MAPAS
• 5:51 Moving into HO years
• 8:09 Finding OBGYN
• 9:13 Training for OBGYN
• 13:55 Maori health equity in OBGYN
• 17:52 Cultural safety in Hauora Maori
• 28:45 Maori birth practices
• 36:52 He Hono Wāhine