Martha Paynter

Registered Nurse, President of the Board Wellness Within

  • Halifax NS

Access to abortion, prison abolition, criminalization and reproductive health

Contact

Media

Social

Biography

Martha Paynter is the founder and chair of Wellness Within (WW), a registered non-profit organization in Nova Scotia that works to advance reproductive health, social justice and prison abolition. She is a registered nurse practicing in abortion and postpartum care. Ms. Paynter holds degrees in economics and health research. She is a PhD Candidate in Nursing at Dalhousie University, where she holds funding from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and studies reproductive health and criminalization.

Industry Expertise

Political Organization
Women
Research
Public Policy
Health and Wellness
Non-Profit/Charitable

Areas of Expertise

Health Services Management
Feminist Health Advocacy
Childbirth
Breastfeeding
Pain Management
Medication
Infant Feeding

Education

Dalhousie University

PhD

Nursing

2023

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholar
CIHR Banting Best Scholar
Canadian Nursing Foundation Scholar
Killam Scholar

McMaster University

M.Sc.

Health Research Methodology

2007

Fellowships:
Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA) http://www.chepa.org/
Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Dalhousie University

M.D.E.

Development Economics

2004

Thesis: "Direct-to-Consumer Advertising: Challenging Health Protection in Canada"

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Affiliations

  • Affiliate Scientist IWK Health Centre Obstetrics & Gynecology
  • Chair, Wellness Within: An Organization for Health & Justice

Languages

  • French
  • English

Media Appearances

'We don't want women to be alone': Halifax group creates guide for females released from prison

Halifax Metro  online

2016-05-12

Doucette’s situation is one many women often find themselves going through upon finishing their jail sentence in Nova Scotia, according to Martha Paynter, the coordinator of Women’s Wellness Within.

Part of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, Women’s Wellness Within provides care for incarcerated women and expectant mothers.

It is behind the creation of a new community resource guide for women released from jail in Halifax, designed to help them start their lives after post-custody.

Paynter said the guide was created after listening to the women held in the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, a jail in Burnside, who wanted a better understanding of the resources available to them once they are released.

“The guide looks at everything from housing to healthcare to employment,” Paynter said Thursday. “The things that you need when you're released and you're alone.”...

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Pregnant inmates cut off from volunteer doulas, says women’s support group

CBC News  

2016-11-15

Inmates at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro, N.S., have been denied access to free doula support since May, according to a group that previously provided the service.

Women's Wellness Within is a collaboration of women's support groups that offers free pre-natal and post-partum care workshops and provides volunteer doulas to assist inmates during pregnancy, birth, and after the baby is born. The group also provides care for women at the provincial jail in Burnside.

It includes about 25 women from several groups including the IWK Midwives, the Chebucto Family Centre/IWK Volunteer Doula Program, the Elizabeth Fry Societies of Cape Breton and Mainland N.S., and the Halifax Branch of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund.

Free service denied

It began working with women at the federal Nova Institution for Women in the fall of 2015, and provided free services for three pregnant women through the winter. The group offers doulas who provide parenting and breastfeeding information and are present during labour and delivery.

But, in May, the group requested a formal written agreement be signed with the institution, to allow volunteers to offer free services, at no cost to the institution.

Martha Paynter
Martha Paynter is coordinator for Women's Wellness Within, the group that had provided free support for pregnant inmates

According to coordinator Martha Paynter, federal correction officials never responded.

"We haven't had responses to our many pleas," said Paynter.

4 women denied service

"It's just been enough," she said. "We know through the grapevine of about four women that have been denied service because of this bureaucracy, or red tape, or whatever you want to call this. And that's too many."

Correctional Service Canada was unavailable for comment.

Joanne Doucette, a Prince Edward Island woman who gave birth to her daughter while serving time at the Nova Institution for Women in 2014, said doulas should be allowed.

The program had not yet started when Doucette was in prison, but she said a doula would have been helpful.

"There's always questions: 'is this right, is that normal, how am I going to do this?'" said Doucette. "You're in jail, you're by yourself, you just need to know that there's someone that will support you, for no other reason, just to support you."

Paynter said pregnancy can be a scary experience for a woman in prison.

"Women in prison have largely been victims themselves of extreme poverty, violence, add

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Pregnancies don’t wait. Doula support withheld from pregnant inmates at Nova Institution

NS Advocate  

2016-11-15

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Women incarcerated in the Nova Institution for Women in Truro have not had access to volunteer doula services since June of this year. As a result women and their babies are at risk, says the coordinator of the partnership that used to provide the doula services.


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Doula services include emotional, physical and information support to pregnant women before, during and after the birth of their children. Doulas are trained, experienced, and compassionate. They support women’s decisions and advocate for access to services.

Women’s Wellness Within (WWW), the partnership that offered the services has not been told by prison management why referrals have stopped.

Martha Paynter, a coordinator at WWW, is at a loss to understand why.

“In the spring of 2016, after having provided doula services for that year, we asked to put in place an agreement for future services. We had been doing it in an informal way, and we needed an agreement for accountability, transparency, so we could apply for grants, all kinds of reasons,” says Paynter.

The group never received a clear response.

“At the prison at the time there was some turnover, there was an interim warden, then a new warden, we were told that people were on vacation, on sick leave, that roles had changed, and on and on and on it went, ” Paynter says.

Meanwhile the women don’t have access to doula services.

“We helped our last client in April, maybe May,” says Paynter. “But we do know through the grapevine that there are pregnant women in the Nova Institution at this time.”

Repercussions of doing without the help provided by WWW volunteers can be extremely detrimental, says Paynter.

“At Nova you can apply for the mother-child program and have your baby live with you in prison,” says Paynter.

“But these women need our support to be parenting effectively in prison. It’s an extremely stressful environment. They’re cut off from family and friends, they come from anywhere in Atlantic Canada, they’re from New Brunswick, PEI, Yarmouth, Sydney…”

“Our support has helped several women to keep their babies. We help mothers deal with things like an inability to breastfeed successfully, premature breastfeeding cessation, post-partum mental health issues, difficulty with mother-child attachment, etc. The need for support is very real. You have to be able to keep your family together,” says Paynter.

WWW is a partnership among IWK Midwives, the Chebucto Family Centre / IWK Volunteer Doul

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Event Appearances

LEAF Halifax Persons Day Breakfast

LEAF Halifax Persons Day Breakfast  Saint Mary's Boat Club

2016-10-14

Articles

Health-care providers' views on pursuing reproductive benefit through newborn screening: the case of sickle cell disorders

European Journal of Human Genetics

2012

Newborn screening (NBS) programs aim to identify affected infants before the onset of treatable disorders. Historically, benefits to the family and society were considered secondary to this clinical benefit; yet, recent discourse defending expanded NBS has argued that screening can in part be justified by secondary benefits, such as learning reproductive risk information to support family planning (‘reproductive benefit’). Despite increased attention to these secondary benefits of NBS, stakeholders’ values remain unknown. We report a mixed methods study that included an examination of providers’ views toward the pursuit of reproductive risk information through NBS, using sickle cell disorder carrier status as an example. We surveyed a stratified random sample of 1615 providers in Ontario, and interviewed 42 providers across 7 disciplines. A majority endorsed the identification of reproductive risks as a goal of NBS (74–77%). Providers’ dominant rationale was that knowledge of carrier status is an important and inherent benefit of NBS as it allows people to make reproductive choices, which is consistent with the goals of disease prevention. However, some challenged its appropriateness, questioning its logic, timing and impact on disease prevention. Others were sensitive to intruding on individuals’ choices or children's independent rights. While the dominant view is consistent with discourse defending expanded NBS, it deviates from the traditional screening principles that underpin most public health interventions. Broader discussion of the balance between benefits to screened individuals and those to families and societies, in the context of public health programs, is needed.

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Health-care providers’ views on pursuing reproductive benefit through newborn screening: the case of sickle cell disorders

European Journal of Human Genetics

2011

Newborn screening (NBS) programs aim to identify affected infants before the onset of treatable disorders. Historically, benefits to the family and society were considered secondary to this clinical benefit; yet, recent discourse defending expanded NBS has argued that screening can in part be justified by secondary benefits, such as learning reproductive risk information to support family planning (‘reproductive benefit’). Despite increased attention to these secondary benefits of NBS, stakeholders’ values remain unknown. We report a mixed methods study that included an examination of providers’ views toward the pursuit of reproductive risk information through NBS, using sickle cell disorder carrier status as an example. We surveyed a stratified random sample of 1615 providers in Ontario, and interviewed 42 providers across 7 disciplines. A majority endorsed the identification of reproductive risks as a goal of NBS (74–77%). Providers’ dominant rationale was that knowledge of carrier status is an important and inherent benefit of NBS as it allows people to make reproductive choices, which is consistent with the goals of disease prevention. However, some challenged its appropriateness, questioning its logic, timing and impact on disease prevention. Others were sensitive to intruding on individuals’ choices or children's independent rights. While the dominant view is consistent with discourse defending expanded NBS, it deviates from the traditional screening principles that underpin most public health interventions. Broader discussion of the balance between benefits to screened individuals and those to families and societies, in the context of public health programs, is needed.

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Understanding sickle cell carrier status identified through newborn screening: a qualitative study

European Journal of Human Genetics

2010

The expansion of newborn screening (NBS) is increasing the generation of incidental results, notably carrier results. Although carrier status is generally understood to be clinically benign, concerns persist that parents may misunderstand its meaning, with deleterious effects on children and their families. Expansion of the NBS panel in Ontario, Canada in 2006 to include sickle cell disorders drew attention to the policy challenge of incidental carrier results. We conducted a study of consumer and provider attitudes to inform policy on disclosure. In this paper, we report the results of (i) qualitative interviews with health-care providers, advocates and parents of carrier infants and (ii) focus groups with new parents and individuals active with the sickle cell community. Lay and provider participants generally believed that carrier results were clinically insignificant. However, some uncertainty persisted among lay consumers in the form of conjecture or doubt. In addition, consumers and advocates who were most informed about the disease articulated insistent yet dissonant claims of clinical significance. Meanwhile, providers referenced research knowledge to offer an equivocal assessment of the possibility and significance of clinically symptomatic carrier status. We conclude that many interpretations of carrier status are in circulation, failing to fit neatly into the categories of ‘clinically significant’ or ‘benign.’ This creates challenges for communicating clearly with parents – challenges exacerbated by inconsistent messages from screening programs regarding the significance of sickle cell carrier status. Disclosure policy related to incidentally generated infant carrier results needs to account for these complex realities.

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