Black Maternal Health April Advocacy Planning Committee Members

CHAIR

Anisah Abdullah is the founder of Inherent Birth, a perinatal wellness service that specialises in empowering perinatal Muslim women to thrive through their motherhood experience.

Anisah has supported and coached hundreds of women/families across 5 continents over the last 9 years. She is passionate about offering holistic support that enables the power, choice and experience to be back in her clients’ hands.

As a busy mum of four, Anisah still finds time to work along-side several grassroots organizations, providing support, consultancy and doula services for women seeking asylum and facing multiple disadvantages.

www.inherentbirth.com

Info@inherentbirth.com

MEMBER

Donald Mbeutcha has worked over the past decade and a half in Financial Technology specifically in payments. He now utilises his payment knowledge to apply it to help businesses make the right decisions faster through data led insights. Donald has looked to break down barriers with race within the financial technology sector and has been part of various groups and organizations, such as the Black Technology Network, working to tackle these issues at their core.

Donald also uses his experience in the corporate sector to tackle some hard-hitting topics surrounding men’s mental health in work, being a dad, and dealing with baby loss.

MEMBER

As a first time mum at the age of 37, I am a passionate advocate for authentic maternal representation, using my platform (and any opportunity!) to highlight experiences of fat, black mothers.

I have 17 years writing and audio production experience, specialising in creating engaging experiences for cultural and heritage audiences. From The National Gallery, London to The Statue of Liberty, I share the stories of real people and use my platform to inform.

I believe that storytelling can create empathy, and is at the core of helping people to understand and relate. I'm excited to use these skills to help bring awareness to the essential work of Five X More

Hertility is a women’s health company, supporting women all the way from menstruation through menopause with comprehensive at-home testing, telemedicine and treatment. Until now, people with ovaries have been underserved by the healthcare system, so we gathered the best minds in female health and dedicated years to building an award-winning alternative clinical experience.

Ultimately, our vision is to reinvent healthcare for every woman and nurture the Mother of all movements by empowering a new generation of women who want to know their bodies and take control of their life choices, both at home and in the workplace. We’re calling this the Reproductive Revolution

Jayde Edwards is the Project Manager at Mental Health Foundation for the Young Mums Connect Project.

Jayde has been able to engage with over 1,000 young parents through improving support on mental health, employment, and education.

Jayde has an interest in politics and hopes to change policies around better opportunities for young people and positive mental health for young people across the UK.

MEMBER

My name is Jubi and I am a midwife and founder of 'The Calm Womxn Hypnobirthing'. I am passionate about helping women feel empowered for labour and birth. I first came across FiveXMore's amazing work when The Black Maternity Scandal was aired on television. It was eye opening to see just how much maternity services were failing black women. It drove me to learn more about how I can improve my care as a midwife.

Unfortunately there is no community at present that I am aware of in Ireland that does the same work as FiveXMore. That is what has propelled me to move into this space, to hopefully spread the awareness in my own community to improve birthing outcomes for black women in Ireland.

My area of interest is promoting positive antenatal education for black women which included advocacy tools, birth planning and birth partner education

Michelle is a social scientist with over a decade’s worth of experience. As a Black researcher, but foremost as a Black mother, she is passionate about the drivers behind the racial inequalities that are prevalent in maternal health in the UK.

Co-author of the landmark Five X More Black Maternity Experiences Survey Report, she is committed to working on projects that aim to address and improve equalities in healthcare. She provides research consultancy to Global Black Maternal Health - an organisation researching maternal health issues faced by Black women; sits on the Medical Research Council Black in Biomedical Research Advisory Group; and has recently been awarded two grants: to learn about Black and Asian mothers’ views on antenatal genetic testing, and to explore Black mothers’ experiences of neonatal care.

Her dream is that equitable and culturally respective maternity care will be the standard, not the exception.

MEMBER

Mum’s Pride (@mums_prideteam on Instagram) is a platform for mothers from different backgrounds and walks in life where they can feel safe, supported and encouraged.

We meet regularly and in smaller groups always allowing kids to come along and we pride ourselves in being a diverse group in terms of religion, age and type of journey. The group has the privilege of having many women working in the healthcare sector, so Mum’s Pride also create a Drs group to help and correctly signpost mothers in need.

Mum’s Pride has truly been a blessing to many and we wish to continue supporting not only our local community, but also mothers around the world.

My name is Natalie. I’m have been a midwife for 13 years in east London and I am passionate about improving current health inequalities faced by black women. I am a mother of a 4 year old boy and use my own experiences in navigating maternity care as building blocks for improving services.

I have worked in public health, safeguarding, education and now work in a strategic role striving to improve the education of students and experience of women. I completed my MSc in 2022 and hope my research will contribute to the education of midwives, healthcare professionals and our women to remove the stark statistics in maternal health.

Let us continue to make change together.

I am a mother of 2 and the creator of Baby Years specialising in Perinatal Mental Health and 0-12 months support. I have experience working with families and supporting new mothers and families in baby development, play and attachment. I am co-chair of Barnsley Maternity Voices, a champion for Maternal Mental Health Alliance, a Young Parent Ambassador for Lullaby Trust.

I have worked with various organisations such as universities, councils and charities to support the best outcomes for babies and mothers. I am a passionate advocate and public speaker for Perinatal Mental Health due to my own experience with severe Perinatal OCD. I have a campaign called "My Baby, Me and The OCD", that showcases the importance of recognising OCD during pregnancy and parenthood.

I promote early identification, intervention and prevention of Perinatal Mental Health in mothers and families. I support the use of Parent-infant Mental health through the use of play and free resources.

MEMBER

Shadae Cazeau is a qualified barrister, discrimination, equality, diversity and inclusion specialist with several years experience in policy development, investigations and strategy across criminal justice, regulation and the public sector more widely. Shadae also sits on the board of the Prison Reform Trust and is a trustee at the Alliance for Youth Justice.

As a black women from humble beginnings, Shadae is committed too and passionate about social justice and tackling inequality wherever it resides including in pre and postnatal care. Shadae’s work to maintain her awareness of issues of inequality remains ongoing and includes examining and continuously correcting her own attitudes and biases.

Birth injury and maternity health advocate, Mother of two and founder of beyond strength, an online platform dedicated to connecting and empowering families with a parent or child with a disability/chronic illness.

MEMBER

My name is Shavarnah, I am 25 years old and the founder of Mumstyleldn. I work as a finance assistant, but my passion is to provide young mums with the knowledge and support that I wish I had when I was 22, pregnant, postpartum, and battling PPD. The Z Gen tends to avoid accepting their current mental state as it is all about fitting in with our social bubble. I am here to break that stigma and the invisible barrier that got us here! This goes generations back due to culture, inequality and what we have been taught to class as ‘weaknesses. I’m here to show you that there’s power in your pain, so own it.

MEMBER

I am a project manager with vast experience in the healthcare industry, focusing on implementation and change management. Prior to projects, I was the General Manager for the NHS's Sterile Services division, collaborating with physicians to guarantee that the results of invasive and non-invasive procedures met the standards for a safe patient pathway.

I will receive my Master's in Global Health and Development from UCL this year. In addition I have successfully obtained my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science, a diploma in Leadership and Management, and a certification in Mental Health First Aid.

In order to guarantee that our practises actually reflect diversity, I work to ensure that policies and guidelines for healthcare workers are inclusive. I am an advocate for health equity within health systems, as I belong to a group that is underrepresented in managerial positions, I want to encourage other women to pursue careers in STEM fields.

Stand up fathers is a CIC that aims to improve the quality of co-parenting relationships, to find healthy and sustainable ways to co-parent whilst keeping their child/ren best interests at heart. Stand Up Fathers plans to empower and support co-parenting dads, to help navigate the trials, hardships and pressures that comes with being a parent. Helping dads connect with other dads to offer support and education around what it means to effectively co-parent.

We understand that there are a lot of pressures and societal expectations of what it means to be a man and a dad. Therefore, we feel more support is needed for dads undergoing in the community. We are here to plug that gap, providing 1-1’s, workshops, activity days and expert advice, guidance and methods to help with their personal development. We want to come together so no dad feels alone during these times making sure dads have a strong support system and learns new skills that promote healthier mental health and wellbeing.

Pregnant Then Screwed is the voice of working mothers in the UK. We provide advice and support to mothers to help them improve their confidence and wellbeing, to give them the tools they need to challenge discrimination in the workplace and to support them to find work that works for them. We advocate for change and raise awareness of the specific challenges faced by working mothers. We challenge deeply entrenched stereotypes about the role of mothers in society.

Mother, Midwife, Health Visitor, Bambino Club Teacher, Baby Massage Facilitator , Baby and Infant First Aid teacher

I am a qualified midwife working with the NHS agency / flexibly on delivery suite and postnatal wards . Working part time as a health visitor with specialist experience in parental and infant mental health , whilst focusing on Professional Aunty private services that support parents get off to the best start by providing bespoke services that bridge the gaps of care . Professional Aunty services was founded On my unique journey of parenting i realised the gaps and support i felt parents needed- so became the support I needed

My Mission is to Support, Assist and Guide you along your journey, by providing you with products and flexible services made fun! -current services - baby massage facilitator , bespoke postnatal visits and baby and infant first aid for the family . We also provide amazing survival boxes with key essentials for mum , dad and baby.

Sheri-An Sassoa is the Founder and Creative Director of the UMME Platform.

Her career started 20 years ago in Health and Social Care when she founded and grew a specialist Brian Injury Care Agency, which today cares for and rehabilitates over 100 clients on a weekly basis.

As a passionate Muslim revert the ideas for UMME arose during her pregnancy when her experience and lack of resources highlighted the need for easy access to information and advice for Muslim women. Sheri-An personally experienced the power of including faith and spiritually in the pregnancy/birth journey and has made it her mission to ensure that other women have the choice to do the same.

The UMME Platform provides Muslim Women with a bridge between Faith and Science during their pregnancy and early motherhood journey.