Having a baby is emotionally and physically demanding. The experience has been affected by the huge disruption to society, health services and support networks caused by Covid-19.

This project has explored the experiences of new parents in Coventry who have experienced pregnancy and childbirth during the pandemic. We spoke with 12 new mothers, from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, who live in Coventry and had babies during the pandemic. The themes discussed included the challenges of becoming a parent during the pandemic, experiences of peer or community support, and unexpected positives that have come out of the pandemic.

We have used these conversations to create a video that you can see from here to represent the experiences that they shared. The video was created by Emily Warner and Lucy Hutchinson with the aim of opening up discussions around the challenges of becoming new parents during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to help increase engagement with peers and health care providers.

The project has also been written up for publication.

Funded by:	The University of Warwick’s Recovery & Transformation - Coventry City of Culture Fund
Research team members:	Dr Sarah Hillman, Dr Becky MacGregor, Dr Julia Gauly, Prof Jeremy Dale, Prof Debra Bick
Collaborators:	MAMTA – Child & Maternal Health Project http://www.fwt.org.uk
Dates:	3rd March 2021 to 31st July 2021

Enquiries:

Dr Becky MacGregor

becky dot macgregor at warwick dot ac dot uk