Category Archives: Writing & journalism

Women at Work – presentation and podcast for the Work Body Ready event.

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1915

In 1915, Margaret Llewelyn Davies edited and published ‘Maternity – Letters From Working Women’. This moving collection of letters from members of the Women’s Co-operative Guild details their experiences of pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, stillbirth, infant death and parenting.

At the end of every letter was listed the family salary and the number of miscarriages, stillbirths and live children they had.

Wages 17s – 25s – 11 children, 2 miscarriages.

Wages 25s. 4 children, 10 miscarriages.

Wages 30s. 5 children, 5 miscarriages.

Wages 16s – 18s. 9 children, 1 stillbirth, 1 miscarriage.

These incredible letters enable us to hear the voices of working women speaking to us across time, describing their experience of motherhood (and often near-constant pregnancy) in a working-class family and without access to free healthcare. Anyone who has ever been pregnant will find something to relate to here.

The letters drew attention to the high level of perinatal loss and the need for better healthcare and financial support for parents. Many mothers had to do heavy and exhausting work throughout their pregnancies and return to work soon afterwards. They and their children’s health suffered as a result.

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‘Supporting someone you know’ – new Miscarriage Association resource online now

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I’m pleased to report that my rewrite of the Supporting someone you know leaflet from the Miscarriage Association is online and in print now.

We identified the need to update this resource as part of the pregnancy loss and mental health project – but obviously its application is much wider. We didn’t do any resource-specific research but I was able to draw on research and understanding from a number of projects I have worked on for the Miscarriage Association including our award-winning youth resources project, our pregnancy after loss resources, our NHS training films, our recently published pregnancy loss and mental health information and our current project on miscarriage and the workplace.

The new leaflet comes at the same time as the launch of new miscarriage cards – for sale on the Miscarriage Association website.

Pregnancy loss and mental health – new resources online now

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I have just finished researching and developing a series of resources around pregnancy loss and mental health for the Miscarriage Association.

Research

I did extensive desk research and conducted a survey of the Miscarriage Associations supporters and stakeholders. In one week we received 1716 responses from people who self-identified as having had mental health problems as a result of their loss or losses.

Report and recommendations

I wrote a detailed report and provided recommendations.

Review of existing guidelines and quality standards showed that mental health support around pregnancy loss is limited and not always followed. Research highlights the association between early pregnancy loss and PTSD symptoms, OCD, depression and anxiety symptoms in particular – although studies are small, difficult to synchronise and limited in scope.

96% of all respondents to the survey reported that they had experienced difficult feelings, emotions or reactions that were caused by or related to their loss or losses in some way. 74% felt alone or isolated, 69% experienced persistent low mood, tearful or unable to find pleasure in things you used to enjoy and 61% felt numb or shut off from other people. 39% of all respondents had existing mental health problems that were made worse by their loss or losses. As well as the statistics we had almost 10,000 individual pieces of qualitative data to read and collate.

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WRISK – understanding and improving communication of risk during pregnancy

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The WRISK project is a collaboration between the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) and Heather Trickey at the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. They are aiming to draw on women’s experiences to understand and improve the development and communication of risk messages in pregnancy.

They asked me to blog about my experience of taking (and trying to stop) antidepressants before conception, during and after pregnancy. I was happy to oblige. I was given conflicting and simplistic advice from various GPs. They failed to give proper weight to the complexity of my experience and used the concept of risk to make me feel guilty and disempowered. This needs to change and I’m glad to support the WRISK project in trying to do so.

Co-creating new resources with Action on Postpartum Psychosis

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In 2013 I ran a training session for Action on Postpartum Psychosis on giving peer support online as part of their award-winning peer support programme. I’ve been working with them ever since. I’ve done a further five training sessions, including one when heavily pregnant and another four months after Oaklan was born.

Now my maternity leave is over, I’m doing some more long-term projects with them. I’m developing a new Insider Guide ‘Being a Parent after Postpartum Psychosis’. As part of this guide, we hope to create some resources to help parents talk to their children about their experience. We will publish the resources to coincide with the general release of the film Irene’s Ghost (a documentary I have been lucky enough to see already and very much recommend).

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Understanding mental health problems – booklet launch

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Last week Oaklan and I went on an adventure to London for the launch of the latest version of Mind’s flagship booklet ‘Understanding mental health problems’.

I wrote this when I was pregnant and it was great to see it finally published. It’s the first title to be published in the new full colour format – complete with pictures. It looks great and I’m really proud of my involvement.

‘Understanding mental health problems’ is one of the titles that Mind publishes as a booklet. You can find it in local Minds as well as workplaces, charity shops, universities and GP surgeries. You can also read it here. You can see the other titles I have written for Mind here.

Is that a cake or a book? Either way I want to eat it please!

 

 

Oaklan enjoyed himself too. He got a free apple in Pret after stealing it from the box and charming the staff, visited our old house in Mile End, had a picnic in Victoria Park, played on the swings and in the sand, met a London baby, slept on a walk through the Olympic Park, mashed strawberries into Mind’s carpet, came with us to the pub for a quick drink, looked out of the window of the DLR at Canary Wharf and threw spaghetti about in my brother’s kitchen.

BMA Patient Information Awards for Mind and Miscarriage Association work

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I’m really chuffed to be able to share that both Mind and the Miscarriage Association received awards at the British Medical Association Patient Information Awards 2017 for information and that I researched and wrote.

The awards aim to ‘encourage excellence in the production and dissemination of accessible, well-designed and clinically balanced patient information’. They look for accessible information that is evidence-based and well researched. It’s also important that people with lived experience are involved in the production of the information. You can see all the award winners here.

Information for young people (for the Miscarriage Association)

The youth resources I researched and wrote for the Miscarriage Association were highly commended. They were also given a runner-up award in the special category for Young Adults. I was particularly pleased with this award as I managed the whole project, conducted the on and offline research with young people, developed recommendations and wrote the resources themselves. You can read more about the consultation process here.

It was reviewed by Dr. Hannah R Bridges of HB Health Comms Ltd who wrote:

‘Wow! This is a wonderful example how good consultation and understanding your audience can lead to great quality information! The Miscarriage Association has identified a need for materials to support young people, who have different experiences and support needs. The consultation, planning, and promotional plans show excellence in producing health information. This shows through in the end products – high quality and extremely well-tailored to the audience. The insight and thought that has gone into this is commendable. Take for example the ‘what happens when you call our helpline’ page – simple, highly visual, concise and reassuring information to encourage young people in need of support to dare to pick up the phone – the overall impression is one of kindness. Just wonderful.’

Money and mental health (for Mind)

The information product Money and mental health I wrote for Mind was highly commended. It also received a runner-up award in the special category for Self-Care resources. This resource was one of the first to be written in a new ‘hub’ format. It involved research with Mind’s online community and social media audiences, working with bloggers with lived experience and researching common problems and support options.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the awards with colleagues from either charity  – at 39 weeks pregnant it wasn’t worth the risk of going into labour on the train from Bristol, at the awards or in my brother’s shared house. But it’s a lovely way to leave work for a while.

Published in The Recovery Letters

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Last year, James Withney of The Recovery Letters emailed to see if I would be interested in contributing a letter to the published anthology. The Recovery Letters are addressed to people experiencing depression. They share experiences and give friendship and hope for recovery.

I’ve always believed in letters and writing as a way through difficult times. In 2012 I wrote about the benefits of public and private writing, on and offline. In 2013 I wrote about creative letter writing for self-guidance and managing mental health and in my post ‘Understanding mental trickery, notes from depression island‘ I used islands as a metaphor for the concept of depression being such that it’s often hard to remember you’ve ever felt happy or imagine you’ll ever feel better. And when you’re not experiencing it, it’s hard to understand or even remember how it feels.  I introduced the idea of finding and making connections between a happier mind and a depressed one. These messages don’t always have to be words. But it’s this idea that forms the basis of my recovery letter.

The book is published next week. I got my copy yesterday. There are some wonderful messages from people prepared to open up and be vulnerable, to share their experience to help others.

And I’m also chuffed to report that mine is the very first letter in the book – and that is has been selected as one of 12 letters that will be on display at the 2017 Mental Wealth Festival.

Understanding eating problems – updated Mind resource

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I don’t usually blog about individual Mind booklets and online resources I write or update (you can see the list here).

But my most recently completed product is pretty close to my heart. It’s called Understanding eating problems.

Changes and updates

I’ve tried to emphasise that you can find eating problems incredibly difficult to live with, without necessarily having a diagnosed eating disorder. I also wanted to make sure it was clear that you can have an eating problem or disorder without being noticeably over or underweight – and that you shouldn’t need a certain BMI or a particular diagnosis to access treatment. It was important to make sure the information was accessible and useful to everyone – including men and older women. These are both groups who are affected by eating problems but often less able to speak about their experiences and access treatment. I also tried to include blogs and quotes from lots of different people, about a range of experiences and problems.

It wanted to talk about the fact that even thinking about recovery can be scary. Eating problems can feel safe – and even exhilarating. Despite an eating problem making your life difficult, you may not feel ready to try and recover straight away. On top of this, I wanted to expand the information we provide on coping with recovery – dealing with food and eating every day in an on and offline world that can seem to spin around eating, food, weight, appearance and body image (you can read more about my own experience here). Sometimes you can look healthier physically, while mentally you’re actually feeling a lot worse. Recovery can take a long time and relapse is common.

The Information Standard

All Mind products are written to the Information Standard. This means that a first draft was reviewed by a number of people with personal and professional experience of eating problems. I love this stage of the writing process as it always gives you new things to think about, and opens my eyes areas I may not have considered or covered properly. We also make sure we consider and respond to all the feedback we receive – I’m looking forward to reading this too (whether it’s positive, negative or suggestions for improvement).

NICE recently updated their guidance around the recognition and treatment of eating disorders. These changes were reflected in the update too.

5 star review for Miscarriage Association training materials in RCOG’s journal (TOG)

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Learning materials for health professionals

I was really chuffed to hear that the Miscarriage Association learning materials for health professionals were given a 5* review in the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ journal The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist (TOG). I did a lot of work on these resources and it’s brilliant to get such positive feedback. Can’t say it better than Kath Evans from NHS England who partially funded the resources…