This project focuses on improving the delivery of care and the needs of minorities aiming to reduce racial disparities, and facilitating access to perinatal services for Black women. The findings will immediately help integrate ethnic considerations into perinatal care and improve understanding of how these considerations affect clinical outcomes and maternal and child health. The first phase of this project aims to train hospital clerks to collect racial and ethnic data and to inform patients and their families of the importance and rationale of collecting this data. Lessons learnt from the training sessions will help inform other institutions on implementing racial and ethnic data collection.

Objective: to allow perinatal clerical staff to collect sociodemographic information in a culturally safe manner. Methods: A training module was developed following review of the literature on the specific topic of racial and ethnic data. The training sessions were carried out with all the clerical staff involved in the perinatal care of women visiting Hopital Montfort. Pre and post training questionnaires were completed by participating staff. The questionnaire items were developed with the program evaluator to evaluate the relevance of the training, the amount of knowledge acquired, and the proposed changes in practice. Focus groups were carried out. Results: all the clerical staff participated – Although there was significant improvement in the knowledge and understanding of the rationale of collecting the ethnic and racial sociodemographic data, clerks somewhat remained worried of the negative attitude they might face. There were challenges with the indigenous communities. Next steps Data collection will be implemented as of August 2023.

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