Mother-well: Creative collaborations

Mother-well was a pump-priming project that explored the views of post-natal mothers from a minority ethnic community on how their quality of life had been affected after the birth of their child, and the role of nature and other factors on improving their wellbeing.

The Mother-well project was shaped by my lived experiences of seeking connection and community after the birth of my children, and my journey of finding spaces in which new mothers like me could feel a sense of belonging. Conversations with other parents, especially mothers, about the impact of having children on their wellbeing and mental health led to my reflections on the tools that could support our resilience during times of change and transformation.

The combination of my research interests and my personal experience led to a growing personal drive to understand factors that shape women’s mental health and quality of life after birth. It also sparked a desire to share creative practices, such as working with paper, colour, and words, that I experienced firsthand to be able to support reflection, expression, and connection.

The Mother-well project had two phases. We conducted 2 PPIE (Patient and Public involvement and engagement) workshops with 15 women from Refugee Mothers of Bristol and one workshop with 8 Women from the Oxford Equal Start East Timor community. The workshops lasted around 2 hours each. We invited women to take part in art-based activities as a way of incorporating their answers to our questions on quality of life after birth and the role of nature connection on wellbeing. We also conducted a rapid scoping review on non-clinical interventions designed to support mental health and wellbeing of new mothers from minority community groups in the UK. Our results highlighted that there is limited evidence on these interventions and that it is hard to clearly identify what are the mechanisms that make interventions effective, such as what works and why. Further research should be conducted to identify how to design meaningful and effective non-clinical interventions to impact on mental health and wellbeing of new mothers from minority ethnic communities.

Co-design activities were at the heart of the project. They were used to communicate the women’s perspectives on quality of life and nature connections, and to create a safe space between researchers, people with lived experience and our community partners. As part of this process, we co-created two artistic outputs from the PPIE workshops. The first was a “collage of collages”, which was co-created by an Iraqi woman who was part of one of the PPIE events. The second output was an e-booklet we co-designed with facilitators, researchers, an artist and project community coordinators to summarise the key messages the women shared during our art-based workshops. The booklet included pictures of the collages created during the workshops, quotes from the mothers involved, and further nature themed photos. In the booklet, the lead artist connected the themes that emerged from the workshop activities with words and images.

We are planning to share the creative outputs with the community groups that were involved in the Mother-well project. This will be used to help with co-developing future collaborations and gathering feedback on next steps. This will be an opportunity to create a safe space for women to connect with each other and with researchers.

As interest in social prescribing, community-based, and co-design approaches to health research continues to grow, projects like Mother-well offer an example of what is possible when creativity, connection, research and lived experience are brought together. The PPIE workshops and the co-design approach highlighted the importance of safe and accessible spaces where women can reflect, share, and rebuild a sense of self after birth. Alongside more formal care, creative approaches may play an important role in supporting postnatal wellbeing and can assist with the diverse needs of mothers and families.

The Mother-well team included researchers and patient and public representatives: Marta Santillo (PI), Stephanie Tierney, Katie Hall, Jordan Gorenberg, Zainab Bhamji, Rachael Howison, Tanya McKay and Megan Kirk Chang.

Catherine Lamont-Robinson co-designed the Mother-well Creative Collaborations booklet.

Rana Ibrahim from Iraqi Women Art and War (IWAW CIC) brought all the original pieces together into one collective artwork, symbolising shared growth, hope, and unity

The Mother-well project was funded/and supported by the BRC Oxford Health EDI pump priming, the department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford and the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.