“Pregnancy, childbirth and the first few months with a newborn are unlike any other time in a mother’s life. Run by two experienced doulas and co-founders of Support ME, parents can feel supported and well-informed during this time with us,” says Nadine Otting, a dedicated Support Me volunteer. 

“We really encourage pregnant women in Nottingham City with high-risk pregnancies or those having to self-isolate to book onto our free course.” 

Thanks to funding from the Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service, this project will bring Support ME one step closer to its mission: that all families are well-supported during and beyond the pregnancy, no matter their financial or cultural background. 

With Nottingham City home to a multicultural community, alongside a breadth of economic disparity, including many deprived areas, this course aims to give all families equal opportunity to be educated. 

“I’ve dedicated my career to working with migrant families. Very often they are anxious to be pregnant and give birth in a foreign country. They don’t know the maternity system and English is not their first language,” says Anna Rutkowska co-founder of Support ME. 

“Since I became a doula I’ve worked with more than 150 families, with the majority of them being migrants. In this course, I focus on decision-making and how to effectively communicate with healthcare professionals. The course is set out to equip parents with the skills and clarity needed to navigate through the maternity system.” 

With maternal outcomes for Black and Brown women significantly worse than for white women, this course is especially being promoted to mums of mixed ethnicity backgrounds. Not only are Black women four times more likely to die during pregnancy, labour, or postpartum, but they are twice as likely to have their baby die in the womb or soon after birth and are at an increased risk of readmission to the hospital in the six weeks after giving birth. Support ME aims to provide interculturally competent, empathetic and compassionate support to women, to improve clinical and psychological outcomes for Black and Brown women and their children. 

“Being in the perinatal world for four years now, I’ve seen the impact of educating families from all backgrounds on the physiology of birth and having a newborn. It enables them to make informed choices and supports their positive mental well-being. Families have gone from feeling terrified to empowered,” says Manisha Sheth, co-founder of Support ME. 

“Comprehensive antenatal and postnatal education should be something every family receives. 

We’ve seen a lack of access to evidence-based education since Covid, especially for those self-isolating. Things are often already difficult for pregnant families, so we’re removing self-isolation as a barrier so that more people can access what we believe to be necessary education.”

This course will see Support ME’s first cohort of one-hundred families begins the course in July. Long-term, Support ME’s ambition is to evolve the free course to give access to all families across Nottingham.