Maternity Workshops in North West London

Here is Nawal Lakhdar feedback from Apricot Wellbeing CIC – 25th July 2024

Being part of this project has been a great privilege. Working with Sarindi Aryasinghe and the whole team has been uplifting, exciting but also challenging at times. I learned so much in terms of engagement methods, processes used, and modules applied as part of this project.

Working with the team we created interactive spaces for local women, community leaders from different organisations, senior managers and other key specialists and professionals, from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster and Chelsea & Kensington. Moussa Amine Sylla and myself co-facilitated and created safe and brave space, where local black and different ethnicity women were able to tell their stories and share their maternity journeys with us and each other.

As a trauma-informed and wellbeing coach, I have an approach that is holistic, empowering, strengths-focused, collaborative and reflective. The approach promotes physical, emotional, spiritual and cultural safety within the workshops. The workshops enable participants to recognize that trauma is something that is common and that people accessing services and people delivering services are affected by trauma. Its importantly appreciating that each person’s experience and expression of trauma is unique.

These are the key areas that we focused on when delivering our workshops.

• Safety & Bravery
• Empathy and genuine curiosity
• Trustworthiness
• Choice and empowerment
• Collaboration
• Cultural consideration

For me, one of the aims of the workshops was to create a genuine human connection, where people begin to see beyond an individual’s behaviour, which can be found as challenging. We therefore coach participants to recognise” What does this person need?” rather than focussing on “What is wrong with this person?”

During our workshops, some women felt safe to express their feelings for the first time, including hurt and disappointment. Some recognised their own trauma and started talking about it. And some needed support to manage those overwhelming feelings of their unresolved trauma, and its negative impact on their health and wellbeing. There is a true power shift and dynamic change that happened as a result of our workshops. Lessons were learnt by watching people connect and offering an empathetic ear and support to each other.
By bridging gaps and making everyone involved made people feel valued and listened to, empowering the local women to find their voices, while providing a reflective space for different professionals particularly those in the decision-making position to review their practices, and to connect empathetically with local issues. And being able to see some of those issues from different perspectives leading them to consider breaking barriers and enabling positive changes to happen.

In my views if we want to develop trauma-informed and person-centred maternity plans of care. This involves:

• Realising how common experiences of trauma and adversity are
• Recognising and being educated about the different ways that trauma can
  affect people
• Responding to support recovery
• Resisting re-traumatisation
• Recognising the central importance of Relationships
• Respecting and recognising women’s Resilience and strength
• Reviewing policies and procedures and as well as revisiting legislation, while engaging everyone involved in the maternity to implement change and to ensure that women and family’s experiences are positive ones and that maternity services are being responsive and inclusive, meeting the needs for everyone in our community

Thank you for this opportunity and for all your continuous support to Apricot wellbeing CIC.