Service Highlight – Maternity Engagement Action
The Waiting Room is proud to be supporting Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2024, which takes place from 29th April to 5 May 2024.
The Waiting Room is proud to be supporting Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2024, which takes place from 29th April to 5 May 2024. Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is a week-long campaign dedicated to talking about mental health problems before, during and after pregnancy. Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week aims and objectives include raising awareness of perinatal mental health problems, supporting women and families impacted, changing attitudes and helping people access the information, care and support they need to recover.
This year the theme for each day is:
Maternity Engagement Action CIC (MEA)
This year, as part of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, The Waiting Room is highlighting Maternity Engagement Action CIC (MEA). MEA is an organisation supporting and empowering Black women and Black mixed heritage women of African descent in Birmingham and beyond, throughout their pregnancy, birth and postnatal journey. Current statistics show that Black women are three and a half times more likely to die when having a baby than White women, with mixed ethnicity women being two times higher and Asian women being twice as high.
MEA provides safe spaces and peer support for Black women throughout pregnancy, birth and early motherhood. MEA aim to empower Black women and raise awareness of how to request and expect clinically and culturally safe, compassionate, and equitable maternity care. Last year MEA launched their first campaign, See Me. Hear Me where they highlighted and addressed the lack of Black perinatal voices in the research and data space. It successfully brought the community and the system, together in spaces that were healing and started the conversation on how through community led wisdom and community knowledge we can support and empower the Black perinatal community and guide the maternity system in Birmingham on effective engagement with local Black mums and mums to be. For more information please view: https://youtu.be/gb50w74z9I8?si=WnykWKm7sKZbl5O3
There are a number of services which MEA provide, which you can get involved in:
Saturday Soup & Birth Stories
Once a month, MEA host Sat’Day Soup and Birth Stories. Combining a traditional meal that brings about nurturing, wellbeing, and learning with storytelling that involves sharing experiences and wisdom to nurture the next generation. For more information, please view here: https://youtu.be/WPr1EjqAVtw?si=aa57XMeLI22rAUyl
Infant feeding Groups.
MEA have a trained Infant Feeding Peer Supporter who provides support via Milk & Chocolate a WhatsApp group. Some of the aims of the group are to help you feel confident and comfortable to breastfeed, discussing healthy weaning and having conversations on barriers to breastfeeding.
https://forms.gle/JtKZyooGPHJsDS9r9
Facebook Group
MEA host a private Facebook group for Black perinatal women, Melanin Mumz of Brum. Here you get access to peer support, information, updates on events and activities and room to ask your questions on all things, pregnancy, birth, baby, and motherhood related.
To join click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/253140809030825
For further information, please visit: www.maternityengagement.uk
Author: Indi Lotay