Identity Matters: Aboriginal Mothers' Experiences of Accessing Health Care

This paper reports on research examining how service providers' perceptions of Aboriginal women's identities contributes to their experiences of accessing preventive care during pregnancy and parenting in an urban setting. An intersectionality paradigm was adopted to conduct a secondary analysis of purposively selected transcripts of exploratory interviews with Aboriginal women. Findings indicate that how Aboriginal women identity as mothers was perceived by service providers was the focal point at which women described positive or negative experiences of accessing care. These conclusions challenge nurses' understandings of developing therapeutic relationships with marginalised populations and highlight the necessity of examining how perceptions of identity shape issues of oppression and discrimination within therapeutic relationships.