OUR STORY

Project MAMA - Maternity Action for Migrants and Asylum Seekers

Our organisation was founded in 2018 by Fiona Mann, an experienced support worker with survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery. Through this work she saw first-hand that migrated Mamas in Bristol were lacking essential support. A number of the people that Fiona worked with were pregnant, in some cases as a result of the exploitation they had survived. These parents-to-be faced significant barriers to perinatal health services. Many were also navigating pregnancy in an unfamiliar place without any family or close friends around them. Fiona’s clients would often ask her to accompany them as a birthing partner. This experience led her to gather midwives, activists, and birth workers to form Project MAMA, a solidarity network for migrated Mamas and babes.

Migrated Mamas are significantly more likely to experience adverse birth outcomes. They are three times more likely to die in childbirth and four times more likely to suffer from postnatal depression than UK-born women. Their babies are more likely to be stillborn, born prematurely, or have a low birth weight (RCOG, 2015).

Project MAMA seeks to address the structural and health inequalities that migrated and displaced people face in the perinatal period. We exist so that all Mamas can feel well-supported on their journey to parenthood and have a community around them when they need it most.