Culturally Aligned Maternity Care
” Manisha is both powerful and gentle which created a safe space and an excellent training and to train and absolutely encourages and supports learning and reflection. “
We're now offering our training & consultancy to organisations
All of our Culturally Aligned Training has been developed by Manisha and Anna, founders of Support ME.
Manisha has lived experience of perinatal mental health as well as years of experience in counselling and advocating for families during perinatal period. Manisha also has extensive experience in delivering Cultural Safety training for maternity care. She has used this develop the training on Supporting Muslim Families.
Manisha has spoken at conferences, such as the Maternity & Midwifery Festival, written articles on the importance of cultural safety and delivered training across the UK, including at University of Nottingham for student midwives.
She is now also an NHS Maternity & Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate, supporting families who’ve experienced poor maternity care as well as a co-lead for Nottingham Race Health Inequalities Programme.
Anna has lived experience of accessing maternity when she arrived in the UK from Poland 10 years ago. She has had years of experience working with migrant families to make sure they’re receiving equitable maternity care.whilst working as the local MVP project manager for a number of years.
Anna also has a background in education and a Masters in Psychology, having done research on the experiences of the Polish community of maternity care in the UK. She has been working closely with Donna Ockenden to encourage their engagement into the NUH review.
Anna now also has developed and and delivers our comprehensive doula training programme where cultural safety is at the core of the curriculum. She is also a local councillor in Newark, working towards making change for her local community.
Our training and consultancy service is not another tick-box exercise, but will be delivered in a reflective workshop style, encouraging open and honest dialogue around race, ethnicity, culture, language and religion in relation to maternity care.
Most importantly, we have developed a new C.A.R.E Practice Model to help healthcare professionals to start actively making a change!
All training is delivered in small groups to facilitate a safe space and can include a 12-month post-training reflection. All consultancy services are tailor-made for leadership teams to implement Cultural Alignment within your organisation, whether that’s through training, policy changes or reflective workshops. We also offer follow-up consultations and further training if required.
We recommend all professionals working within maternity attend our training, including midwives, obstetricians, leadership teams and those involved in pastoral care. We also invite universities to consider this training for their faculty and students, especially those involved in midwifery and obstetrics.
Why you NEED this training for your organisation
NHS 3-YEAR PLAN
One of the objective is to 'Improve equity for mothers and babies' after they found “multiple structural and other biases exist in UK maternity care”.
MBBRACE
MBBRACE reports have continuously & clearly that Black women are 4 x times more likely to die during maternity, and Asian women twice.
BIRTH RIGHTS
2 of the 5 call to actions from the Birth Rights Inquiry are "commit to being an anti-racist organisation" & "create safe inclusive workforce cultures".
We facilitate a safe space so attendees will leave our training with:
→ Deeper understanding of their own biases
→ Knowledge on the importance of offering culturally safe maternity care
→ A clear path to start developing themselves personally and professionally
→ Steps to continue professional development beyond the training
→ More confidence in their role and tools to help them to continue to develop professionally
Our C.A.R.E Model
Culturally Aligned practice isn’t about finally offering marginalised groups equal and inclusive care. It’s about acknowledging and accepting oppressive practices exist and how the system has failed them. We need to accept the systemic issues that have built the foundation of oppressive care and the power imbalance that lies within it. Only then can we offer equitable care rather than including the ‘other’.
If you’re working in maternity or perinatal care, I’m sure you are very aware of the current statistics and challenges we have in the UK when providing equitable support to families.
How do we improve care that will make a difference? What are the internal and behavioural factors that need to be worked on to make an actual difference?
That’s why as part of our 1-day training, we include our new C.A.R.E (Culturally Aligned, Responsive and Ethical) Practice Model to you work towards become better, safer and ultimately improve outcomes by offering equitable care.
Current Trainings Available:
Culturally Aligned Maternity Care
We’re so excited to be taking interest for our new 1-day training on Culturally Aligned Maternity Care launching early 2024. This will be either online or in-person exploring:
→ What Cultural Alignment is and why it’s important
→ The impacts on maternity care
→ Navigating language and cultural barriers
→ How to be more culturally responsive
→ Using our C.A.R.E. Practice Model to help you work towards offering safer care to families.
Supporting Muslim Families
This is a 1-day training consisting of Level 1 & 2 of our current training on Supporting Muslim Families. This will be either online or in-person exploring:
→ Basics of Islamic beliefs and Muslim practices
→ Impacts on maternity care
→ How to support Muslim families during birth and the postnatal period.
→ Family dynamics
→ Miscarriage and infant loss.
→ Perinatal mental health
Click here to see all the feedback we’ve received from attendees
Bespoke Training
If you’re unsure of what you’d like included in a training day, or would like a combination of the above, we can look to tailor training specifically for your needs and/or demographics:
- Neonatal care
- Obstetric care
- Engaging with marginalised communities
- Creating a safer workforce
- Building confidence in speaking up.
Consultancy
We also offer consultancy services for those who:
- Would like to embed training within your own organisation,
- Review current training on how to have the most impact
- Guidance on establishing effective services for diverse ethnic communities in your area
For more information or to make a booking, complete the form below:
” Manisha made it feel like a really safe place and non-intimidating topic. You could see the genuine passion she has for this area. “
