46. Rosie Murphy - addressing health inequalities in maternity

Wild Card - Whose Shoes?

Rosie Murphy is a midwife doing fantastic work around health inequalities, including the coproduction workshop we co-led in Croydon.

Our conversation builds on Episode 45 with Noreen Bukhari. I hope Rosie and Noreen will connect and exchange notes on their excellent work in Coventry and Croydon, supporting women from black and ethnic minority communities.

I met and became friends with Rosie through her prestigious Darzi fellowship – Rosie's work was rated as exceptional.
Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋

• Racism is not just about shouting expletives - it is complex
• We all have unconscious bias
• There is unwillingness to acknowledge systemic racism
• UK institutions are largely built around the needs and understandings of white middle class men
• We need to be culturally aware to understand what matters to people
• Whose Shoes uses imaginative ways to listen to ALL voices
• Trust, being listened to, being taken seriously MATTER
• Education, socio-economic status, ethnicity, body, size affect how likely to be taken seriously
• There is mistrust and distrust of the NHS/ maternity services among some groups
• Maternity services are difficult to navigate!
• The NHS doesn’t need to fix all problems itself
• Use informal communication channels that people trust - hairdressers!
• Social deprivation has many impacts – services need to flex more
• White allyship includes owning our own biases
• Call people in, not call them out
• Lived and learned experience - work TOGETHER for safety of mother and baby
• Women who've had a negative experience find it harder to speak out next time
• HEARD campaign, Croydon – Health, Equity And Racial Disparity
• Find simple ways to show women they are being taken seriously
• Creative ways for people to feedback
• Croydon BME Forum / Asian Resource Centre reach people in imaginative ways - eg community healthcare drop-in session
• Share the learning eg infographics, blogs, Steller Stories , Sway reports
• Connect and learn from others

Links and resources

• Rosie's blogs: Partnering with minoritised women and birthing people to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes: a Darzi journey - Health Innovation Network
• Film - Highly acclaimed Whose Shoes event in Croydon, focusing on health inequalities affecting women and families from Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities
• Gill Phillips' presentation at ‘Birthing with colour’ Nov 2020 -championed by Lewisham and Greenwich maternity team
• Nobody's Patient' project
• Family Integrated Care report
• The Obs Pod - CQC Maternity Survey 2022
• Gill Phillips' article Patient Experience Library, Jan 2023 capturing 'Whose

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Chapitres

1. 46. Rosie Murphy - addressing health inequalities in maternity (00:00:00)

2. Connecting people working in this space - Noreen Bukhari (episode 45) and Rosie Murphy! (00:00:46)

3. Rosie's journey - becoming a midwife and strong advocate of women's rights (00:02:41)

4. Rosie's Darzi Fellowship challenge - addressing race-based health inequalities (00:05:08)

5. Disparities in maternal mortality - a growing awareness (00:06:22)

6. A fear of 'naming the problem' - unwillingness to acknowledge systemic racism as a factor (00:08:40)

7. Racism is not just about shouting expletives - it is more complex. Unconscious bias. (00:10:00)

8. UK institutions are largely built around the needs and understandings of white middle class men (00:10:59)

9. There is more than one perspective - using Whose Shoes to hear ALL voices and make change (00:11:23)

10. Virtual Whose Shoes during the pandemic (00:11:56)

11. An infographic brought a breakthrough - the disparity in maternal mortality gained traction! (00:13:20)

12. We need to be MUCH more culturally aware to understand what matters to people (00:14:37)

13. Speaking up. White allyship - what does it take? (00:17:50)

14. Recognising and addressing our own prejudices; showing vulnerablity (00:19:47)

15. Nova Reid - 'calling people in, not calling them out' (00:20:55)

16. A practical example of unconscious bias - not just race, any deep-help belief that has no basis in fact (00:22:50)

17. Social deprivation – how we need to be more aware of the impact and make appropriate adjustments (00:26:24)

18. Deep distrust and mistrust of the NHS and of maternity services in particular - we need to recognise this to find ways to help people build trust and engage (00:31:00)

19. Trust, being listening to, being taken seriously - CENTRAL themes to all our Whose Shoes work (00:35:54)

20. The recent ObsPod podcast on the CQC maternity survey talks about a decline in the proportion of women thinking their concerns were listened to and taken seriously (00:37:05)

21. Education, socio-economic status, ethnicity, body, size +++ affect how likely you are to be taken seriously! (00:38:03)

22. Lived and learned experience need to be valued, and everyone work TOGETHER for the safety of mother and baby (00:39:37)

23. If women have had a negative experience (not being listened to) it will become harder to speak out next time (00:41:10)

24. The HEARD campaign in Croydon – Health, Equity And Racial Disparity (00:42:25)

25. Simple, practical ways of supporting women who feel they are not being taken seriously (00:43:34)

26. Blind spots. Invisible. How do we reach people who don’t reply to surveys? (00:46:02)

27. We need to create more channels for people to feedback. We need to understand why they feel that nothing will change as a result of their feedback. (00:49:24)

28. Using the power of community and trusted relationships within the community. Hairdressers and more. (00:50:10)

29. As Noreen Bukhari says (Episode 45) trust takes a long time to build! (00:52:05)

30. Community First! The NHS doesn’t need to fix all the problems – it needs to reach out and work with the community (00:53:37)

31. Use informal communication channels, that people trust! (00:56:10)

32. Maternity services are difficult to navigate! (00:56:39)

33. Shoutout to the Croydon BME Forum and the Asian Resource Centre! (01:00:11)

34. A community healthcare, drop-in session, reaching people in more imaginative ways (01:00:43)

35. Dissemination! Finding imaginative ways to share the learning from Rosie’s Darzi Fellowship to benefit busy healthcare professionals (01:02:48)

36. Blogs, Steller Stories , Sway reports all have a place – as well as the formal, 10,000 word academic paper! (01:04:30)