Rooted in care.
Built for systems.
Focused on
lasting impact.
Civitas is a founder-led consulting practice specializing in maternal-newborn, perinatal, and midwifery systems advisory.
We work with governments, Indigenous organizations and leadership, health organizations, funders, and international partners to strengthen the policies, programs, services, and systems that shape care for women, babies, families, communities, and the people who provide care.
Our work bridges policy and practice, helping clients navigate complexity with clarity, collaboration, and purpose.
Our Story
Rooted in experience.
Driven by purpose.
Civitas was founded on a simple belief: maternal-newborn and perinatal health systems are strongest when they are shaped by the realities of care.
Too often, policies and programs are developed far from the clinical and community settings where they must be implemented. At the same time, care providers and communities are often left to work within systems that do not fully reflect what meaningful, responsive, and sustainable care requires.
Civitas exists to help bridge that gap.
Drawing on more than twenty years of experience across midwifery, maternal-newborn care, health policy, program development, Indigenous health systems, and strategic leadership, we help clients translate evidence, lived experience, clinical realities, and community priorities into practical policies, programs, and models of care.
Our work is grounded in the belief that better systems support better care, better care improves outcomes, and better outcomes create the conditions for lasting change.
Civitas is a Latin word connected to community, citizenship, and shared responsibility.
For us, it represents the belief that health systems are part of how communities care for one another. In maternal-newborn and perinatal health, those systems shape access, quality, provider support, community trust, and outcomes for families.
The name reflects our commitment to systems grounded in relationship, accountability, equity, and care.
What Civitas Means
Founder & Principal Consultant
Civitas was founded to support organizations working to strengthen maternal-newborn, perinatal, and midwifery systems.
Laya is of European settler ancestry and is originally from Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, on the unceded lands and waters of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation. She has lived most of her life in Coast Salish territories, particularly the unceded lands of the Tla’amin Nation.
As a former Registered Midwife with a Master of Health Administration, Laya brings more than twenty years of experience across clinical care, health policy, program development, strategic planning, implementation, and systems transformation. Her work has moved between direct care, community-based practice, provincial and federal health policy, funding and governance environments, and international maternal health contexts.
Laya’s perspective is grounded in the realities of care delivery across diverse settings. She has provided care in rural and remote communities, supported families navigating access to maternity care away from home, spent time providing care in Uganda, and worked to strengthen rural and remote maternity care offerings in Mexico. These experiences continue to shape her understanding of how geography, policy, funding, political context, workforce, culture, and service design affect access to safe, respectful, and sustainable care.
Her systems experience includes federal and provincial health policy, program and funding analysis, midwifery systems development, workforce planning, government and funder strategy, and leadership as Manager of the Indigenous Midwifery Department at the Association of Ontario Midwives, the provincial association advancing midwifery in Ontario.
Laya’s particular strength is translating between care and systems: helping decision-makers understand clinical and community realities, while supporting policies, programs, services, and implementation approaches that are practical, respectful, and sustainable.
Laya Bourguignon, MHA, BHSc (Midw.), RM (NP)
"Laya brings a thoughtful, strategic, and compassionate perspective to health systems. Our conversations on Indigenous health, leadership, and health system transformation consistently challenged and enriched my thinking. She has a remarkable ability to facilitate meaningful discussions with humility, respect, and genuine curiosity. I highly recommend Laya to organizations seeking thoughtful guidance on complex health system issues."
— Renée Légaré, PhD
Director, Master of Health Administration Program
Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
What Guides Our Work
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Care is shaped by systems.
The quality, accessibility, and sustainability of care are shaped by decisions about policy, funding, workforce, governance, regulation, education, and service design.
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Providers need systems that support them.
Care providers do their best work when systems are designed to reflect clinical realities, community needs, and the conditions required for meaningful care. -
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Communities must shape the care intended for them.
Maternal-newborn and perinatal health systems are strongest when they are grounded in the priorities, experiences, and knowledge of the populations they serve. -
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Collaboration is the foundation of meaningful change.
Our work is grounded in relationship, trust, and integrity. We listen carefully, work respectfully, and bring people together across systems to build solutions that are practical, accountable, and shared. -
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Strategy must be implementable.
Good strategy does not live only in reports. It must translate into policies, programs, services, relationships, and decisions that can be sustained over time.
Our Working Model
Founder-led. Collaborative. Intentional.
Civitas is a founder-led consulting practice. Every engagement is led directly by Laya, providing clients with continuity, accountability, and a consistent point of partnership from the first conversation through project delivery.
When an engagement would benefit from additional or complementary expertise, we draw on a trusted network of advisors and collaborators. Depending on the project, this may include expertise in research, philanthropy, facilitation, evaluation, governance, Indigenous engagement, health workforce planning, or implementation support.
This flexible model combines direct, senior-level leadership with access to the right expertise at the right time—keeping each engagement personal, focused, collaborative, and accountable.
Supporting Indigenous-Led Maternal Health Systems Work
Civitas supports maternal-newborn, perinatal, and midwifery systems work with Indigenous Nations, communities, organizations, and partners in ways that are respectful, relationship-based, distinctions-based, and grounded in Indigenous self-determination.
We recognize that First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and Indigenous Nations and communities have distinct histories, rights, priorities, governance structures, and health systems contexts. Civitas does not speak for Indigenous Peoples, Nations, or communities. Our role is to support work that centres Indigenous leadership, community priorities, cultural safety, and meaningful partnership, while contributing policy, planning, systems, and implementation support where invited and appropriate.
Why Civitas
Effective maternal-newborn and perinatal systems work requires more than technical expertise. It requires the ability to understand context, build trusted relationships, and translate between the realities of care and the decisions that shape it.
With experience spanning clinical care, midwifery, maternal-newborn and perinatal health, provincial and federal policy, governance, funding strategy, implementation, and cross-cultural systems work, Civitas brings both strategic perspective and practical insight.
We work collaboratively with clients to develop thoughtful, evidence-informed solutions that strengthen systems, support providers, respond to community needs, and improve outcomes in ways that can be sustained over time.
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Relationship-Centred
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Evidence-Informed
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Implementation-Focused
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Lasting Impact
Let’s build systems that support meaningful care and lasting outcomes.
If you are developing strategy, strengthening midwifery systems, redesigning perinatal services, aligning programs and funding, or supporting implementation, Civitas can help connect the pieces.