Aboriginal research methods and researcher reflections on working two-ways to investigate culturally secure birthing for Aboriginal women

This five-year study investigated the cultural birthing practices, needs and requirements of Aboriginal women giving birth in urban settings, and their experiences of maternity care and views of birthing on Country. It also investigated how midwives perceive and support cultural security. The paper highlights the selection of research methods that complemented the project's Indigenous methodological framework. Cultural lenses and diverse expertise translated the outcomes to recommendations about a culturally meaningful health system and professional practice and education aimed at supporting Aboriginal women's birthing expectations in the future. Our tailored research practices privileged culturally secure approaches to push back against Western knowledge paradigms that have dominated qualitative research undertaken with Aboriginal people. This paper describes the research methods chosen to manage complex data collection and analysis, and how we blended Indigenous-specific methods with compatible standard methods to support Indigenist and decolonising research practices. We include Aboriginal researcher reflections to highlight the importance of culturally determined research processes that result in high-quality, culturally meaningful research.