Last week we held the Maternity Stream AGM. Thank you to all who came and sent their apologies.

It was a great chance to hear how the project has developed over the past year and made me feel even more privileged to be part of such a great venture.
The part that really stuck out was hearing feedback from volunteers. When asked how they felt about about speaking out and sharing their personal stories in settings like conferences (in front of over 100 people) Sara replied:

“it’s amazing! Its good for myself, my self confidence. I’m really really happy to give my experiences so [bad things] don’t happen to others. I love it, it’s good. I’m happy to do more” – Sara is going to speak with Rose and Mel at a conference in Ireland this weekend!

I’m delighted to say that 13 trustees were elected, including Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. We are also thrilled that over half the trustees are migrant women and so we can be sure that the personal experiences of women will remain at the heart of everything the Maternity Stream does and we are very much working with asylum seeking and refugee women to improve maternity care, rather than for them.

Soon the Maternity Stream will become an entity in it’s own right as an “unicorporated association”. We will probably change again to an “incorporated association” but this takes more time and we needed to get our own bank account quickly in order to apply for funding.

Request:
We do need help to find funding to continue developing. Please do get in touch or send through useful links.
**
Date of Next meeting: 22nd April 10.30-12.30pm at Ebor Court, Leeds

by Shelley Franklin-King
Maternity Stream Project Manager