In 2023-24 the History and Midwifery Student Internship programme set out to investigate, through focus groups and engagement with staff and students, how history might be incorporated into the Midwifery programme.
Background
The LJMU and Slavery Project has uncovered the extent that LJMU’s antecedent colleges were complicit in the dissemination of racial knowledge. Coupled with the statistics on Black maternal health disparities that demonstrate the extent that racism is still present in healthcare, we aimed to understand how we might confront this and incorporate the history of Black maternal health care, Black community healthcare practices and the history of Black midwives.
Our project outcomes were to:
Produce student-led curricula resources/interventions to be embedded into the LJMU midwifery programme.
Present at the Students at the Heart conference on how interdisciplinary collaboration between Humanities and Sciences can aid decolonization.
To provide an opportunity to feed into the LJMU and Slavery Project report, led by Dr Andrea Livesey
Syllabus from Liverpool Mechanics’ Institution, Liverpool Record Office
Four students were recruited from History and Midwifery programmes. Alongside the project leads (History: Andrea Livesey; Midwifery: Clare Maxwell, Sarah McDonald and Georgina Keaney), students designed the programme of research and focus groups, applied for ethical approval and carried out the focus groups. Students also attended the Black Maternal Health Conference in London to listen and learn from healthcare providers, activists, and maternity service users who spoke at the event.
The Internship
Themes emerging from analysis
Interns and project leads analysed the discussion and feedback from the focus groups. From this, three themes emerged.
Representation - Gaps in the curriculum were noted including Black culture.
Recognition - Space for discussions; role that Black enslaved midwives had on reproductive health in the past, and in current midwifery practice is needed.
Confidence - Barriers to conversation, lack of awareness, lack of education, and anxiety around discussions on race were noted.
Outcomes
This project is ongoing. Whilst our student internships have now finished, there are significant changes being made to the midwifery programme by Midwifery lead, Clare Maxwell. These changes will both better support students, improve teaching around racial disparities and include better recognition of the contribution of Black midwives to maternity care.
The project leads have applied for additional funding to continue and expand this work.
More to come!