Lullaby
Two women from non English-speaking backgrounds share their experiences of facing language barriers while receiving healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth.
What’s this about?
The Lullaby photography project follows the stories of two women from non-English speaking backgrounds as they share their experiences of language barriers through pregnancy and childbirth. Through these stories, we aimed to emphasise the importance of culturally sensitive care, to support the needs of all families in light of language barriers as they journey through pregnancy and birth.
We heard from two mothers, Nadifa and Lizeth, who shared their experience of childbirth before and during the pandemic. They faced various challenges due to the lack of common language with healthcare staff during their pregnancies and while giving birth.
This project was conceived and managed by Esther Sekyere. Esther is a perspectives intern at Kaleidoscope and a neonatal nurse. She used photography, video and audio recordings from interviews to create a mini-documentary to showcase Nadifa and Lizeth’s stories and explore what we can learn.
The mothers
The Lullaby project follows the stories of two mothers from non-English speaking backgrounds, Nadifa and Lizeth.
We spoke to them to ask their views on the importance of translation support for mothers during the birthing experience.
Their stories have been shared to highlight the need for phone translation for new mothers. The stories also highlight the value of in-person translation, and emphasise the need for empathy, understanding and patience so that mothers can engage fully in the care of themselves and their babies.
About Esther
Before joining Kaleidoscope, Esther worked as a neonatal nurse caring for the tiniest (and most resilient!) members of our population in a busy London NICU.
Having worked as a frontline healthcare professional, Esther was keen to deepen her understanding of health policy and service improvement. She developed and delivered the Lullaby project to raise the profile of mothers who don’t have English as their first language in maternity services.
Read Esther’s reflections on the issue of language barrier in maternal healthcare.
