Project Mama

Project MAMA support women who are refugees, seeking asylum or have irregular immigration status throughout pregnancy, childbirth and in early parenting.

Who are we?

Project MAMA is a charitable organisation founded by Fiona Mann and launching in early 2018 that will offer a free, confidential and individual-focused support. Having spent the past few years working with asylum-seeking survivors of human trafficking I have found that most of the women I worked with had experienced sexual exploitation or violence, resulting in pregnancy. Women seeking asylum in the UK frequently give birth in hospital on their own, with little understanding of the maternity process in the UK and no support networks around them.

We will support women refugees, asylum-seekers, those with uncertain immigration status and survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking. We are focusing on this demographic because of the extreme difficulty they can have accessing the NHS, the language barriers they are facing and the extreme social isolation they experience.

Project MAMA has been created in response to these issues and is a hive of midwives, activists, doulas and birth companions as part of a peer network of skills, support and solidarity for these women and their children.

What will we do?

Project MAMA will match peer support birth companions with pregnant women. Clients will have one-to-one support ensuring companionship and a nurturing presence during this challenging time.

Women will have the space to discuss any anxieties or worries they may have. They will be supported to make informed choices about birth and to access the care they need through the NHS and partner organisations.

During labour, birth companions will offer emotional and practical support to women. They will continue to be present in the proceeding weeks after childbirth to ensure both mother and baby are thriving and have the support they need.

Project MAMA’s ethos is to encourage independence and resilience in women, by providing a safe and supportive space, where they can access peer support and develop an understanding of their rights and entitlements.

Why we need to do this

The trauma women experience on their journey to the UK and often once they have arrived can cause many of them to suffer from extreme mental health issues. Additionally these women often have no family members or community around them during pregnancy, labour and the crucial weeks after birth. This can be a terrifying and lonely experience. At present Bristol does not have adequate services or resources to provide the specialist support these women and children need.

Women who are seeking asylum and have uncertain immigration status have difficulties in accessing healthcare in the UK. As such, these women are three times more likely to die in childbirth and four times more likely to suffer postnatal depression than other women in the UK. Their babies are more likely to be stillborn or born prematurely, to have a low birth weight, or to have birth defects.
(Source: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 2015).

Furthermore, two thirds of women refugees are the survivors of sexual assault as a direct result of forced migration, of which pregnancy can be a consequence.
(Source: Reproductive Health Matters, 2015)

Project MAMA will address these issues and bridge this gap so women will have the support they need during the maternity period. Project MAMA will provide crucial antenatal, birth and postnatal support to asylum-seekers and refugees in Bristol.