Midwives, health visitors, housing support workers, student nurses and midwives, children centre managers, refugee organisations and other charities from Bradford and beyond attended the conference held at the University of Bradford two weeks ago to learn more about the needs and experiences of pregnant and postnatal asylum seeking and refugee women. With over 100 delegates representing more than 20 different organisations, delegates had a rare opportunity to network with statutory and non-statutory services and share both common concerns and good practice.

Following an introduction about the Maternity stream and how services can work towards the Services of Sanctuary Award, Tansy Kerenza from Bradford Action for Refugees (BAFR) set the context of support available in Bradford. Particularly notable, is the current gap in support due to the loss of the NCT scheme, ‘Birth and Beyond’.

The conference was framed by the premiere film showing of “Childbirth in the UK, stories from refugees” by the Maternity Stream. The film focuses of on different challenges faced by many asylum seeking and refugee women. First hand accounts of the physical, emotional and cultural difficulties that women face are heart-wrenching, enlightening and sometimes simply unbelievable. Shown in two halves the subjects raised in the film including the asylum system, entitlements, FGM, HIV and mental were followed up with presentations. The powerpoint presentations can be found in the resources section.

The highlight of the conference for many was the talk given by, Sara, a refugee with two sons. Sara spoke about her different birth experiences, the first just going through standard care and the second very positive experience with the specialist Haamla team in Leeds who work with minority ethnic communities, including asylum seekers and refugees. Not only did Sara address the conference with eloquence, confidence and spirit, but she did it with her 10 month old son over her shoulder and managed to get him to sleep at the same time!

Stalls from local organisations including, Bradford City of Sanctuary and Peacemakers international brought colour to the Great Hall and a team from Community Health Maps attended to encourage services to register their organisations on the online map to aid effective and efficient referral between maternity care providers and community organisations.

The conference received very positive feedback and went ‘wild’ on twitter. One delegate left saying that the conference “has opened my eyes! I didn’t know about all this until now and I look forward to working with you in the future”.

Personally, I left feeling both overwhelmed by the massive amount of change that still needs to happen to ensure that asylum seeking and refugee women get the care and tenderness they need, yet heartened by the enthusiasm and sense of determination of the delegates. I look forward to the follow up work in bradford and hope that tangible positive changes are just around the corner.

This was the first conference of it’s kind and we hope to facilitate similar events throughout the Yorkshire and Humber district. Please do get in touch if you are interested in any of the work we do.
Shelley Franklin-King, Maternity Stream Project Manger
Please see the program attached and our resource page for more information.