See Me Hear Me – 2024
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Our See Me Hear Me 2024 campaign has started with the launch of a report from a small research project we conducted in 2022 with our Maternity Ambassadors for Change (MACs).Â
The process consisted of an online survey where we asked local Black perinatal women about their recent experiences of maternity services. The MACs were in the unique position to analyse the data from the research as they too were in the postnatal phase.
While the findings from the participants were interesting, the actual process of analysing the data with the Maternity Ambassadors, Dr Tamanda Walker and Dr Rebeca Sandhu was even more thought provoking.
The campaign this year is focusing on placing the voices of the Black birthing community at the centre of research and data.
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A new way forward
Putting us in the driving seat of local research and data.
Saturday Soup & Birth Stories
Saturday at YARD Arthouse
Saturday soup is a traditional meal that brings about nurturing, wellbeing and learning, SOUP IS ALSO THE KEY INGREDIENT FOR PREGNANCY AND POSTNATAL NOURISHMENT.Â
Our Sat’day Soup and Birth Stories workshop was a great success. Working with Joi De Vivre and Sankofa Healing Creative Arts our mums enjoyed nourishing soup, exchanged recipes and shared their stories through arts, spoken word and movement. Â
We are now continuing to deliver Sat’day Soup and Birth Stories each month.
#SMHM2023 #SEEMEHEARMEMEA23 #VOICESFROMTHEFRONTLINE
Black Birth Manifesto
At Grosvenor Road Studios
Our Maternity Ambassador for Change Natasha Subi alongside artis Ola Brown facilitated this fabulous workshop. Natasha is writing a Black Birth Manifesto and she is determined to get Black women to have safe, joyful and empowered perinatal experiences. If you want to be part of our movement pushing for BIRTH EQUITY, JUSTICE AND SYSTEMS CHANGE please let us know.
#SMHM2023 #SEEMEHEARMEMEA23 #VOICESFROMTHEFRONTLINE
my Belly, My Story
At YARD Arthouse
This was a beautiful, nourishing and calming session with mums having a cast made of their pregnancy belly. Once the cast was dry, the mums worked with local artist Ola Brown to tell their birth stories through mixed media. Mums told stories of their pregnancies so far and also shared what they wanted their birth journey’s to look like.Â
#SMHM2023 #SEEMEHEARMEMEA23 #VOICESFROMTHEFRONTLINE
African Drumming & Movement
At Aston Pavillion
We worked with Moving Tu Balance and played African drums and moved our bodies to positive rhythms. Mums said this would be an interesting way to embody the rhythm of their baby’s heartbeat and movements and even may be a good way of feeling calm during labour. Â
#SMHM2023 #SEEMEHEARMEMEA23 #VOICESFROMTHEFRONTLINE
See Me Hear Me Conversation
At Midlands Arts Centre
We achieved our goals of bringing both the community and the system together in spaces that were healing and restorative. We started the conversation on how through community-led wisdom and community knowledge we can drive forward data that supports and empowers the Black perinatal community as well as guide the maternity system in Birmingham on effective engagement with local Black mums and mums to be.
Our guest speakers were powerful and we appreciated their support, compassion and pursuit of perinatal equity around the topic of Black maternal engagement in BirminghamÂ
This is the start of MEA amplifying the voices of Black perinatal women in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. We aim to connect these voices to the system and invite mums to be a part of co-production activities. We plan to continue the See Me Hear Me campaign for the foreseeable future.
#SMHM2023 #SEEMEHEARMEMEA23 #VOICESFROMTHEFRONTLINE