Co-created with mums, mums-to-be, and a multidisciplinary team of specialists, ‘See the Whole of Me’ is a powerful animation illuminating the importance of active listening in maternity care.
Here, Dr Caroline Claisse from Newcastle University’s Open Lab writes about how the collaborative process of making the animation continues to amplify their voices.
Contents:
- What is 'See the Whole of Me'?
- Why it matters
- The power of creativity and storytelling to articulate lived experience
- Coming together to animate their stories
- Animation as a medium for impact
- What does an inclusive and participatory approach look like for community engagement?
- Making meaningful, long-lasting impact
What is 'See the Whole of Me'?
Recently, Open Lab researchers at Newcastle University and Voluntary Community Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations collaborated to explore opportunities and challenges for the service design of maternal mental health care provision in North Cumbria.
The project led to ‘See the Whole of Me’, a powerful animation co-created with mums and mums-to-be that illuminates the importance of active listening in maternity care.
Why it matters
As many as one in four women in the United Kingdom (UK) will experience maternal mental health issues in the perinatal period and two-thirds of them will hide or underplay such issues. A recent report also documented the wider societal and direct impact upon families of not being able to access the right support at the right time. It also highlighted additional barriers for mums and mums-to-be who experience complex social factors, health inequalities, and deprivation.
By listening deeply to the seldom heard voices of women facing these challenges, we aimed to understand these barriers and learn about stories of hope and resilience. Exploring gaps and opportunities to meet their needs helps us champion the rights of all women and their families, think differently about how services are designed and offered, and understand how community engagement of this nature promotes community-based approaches as a vehicle for change.
A key theme explored in the animation is the value and importance of active listening in order to support women in their perinatal journey. However, current listening mechanisms in the healthcare system have been experienced as impersonal, de-humanising and too clinical. This is compounded by the increasing role AI-driven and digital technologies play in delivering care.
More efforts should be placed on how listening is done and nurtured, and whilst digital technologies have a role to play, it cannot be the default mode for listening.
In order to work towards meaningful digital inclusion, more work is needed to address the social and technical barriers of digital platforms that risk reinforcing the huge inequalities in maternal care.
A screenshot from the animation. Artworks ©Olga Mashanskaya, Roots and Wings.
The power of creativity and storytelling to articulate lived experience
We see the animation as a vehicle to prompt more dialogue with mums and key actors across the VCSE sector and the NHS. We hope it can help foster a culture of compassionate and collective care, and envision what a community life-course approach to maternal listening might look like as well as the role digital technologies play in it.
A series of creative workshops were organised to engage a diverse group of women in sharing their perinatal experience and motherhood stories. Participants included those who had experienced homelessness, the asylum system, criminal justice system, from LGBTQ+ communities, Black and Brown mums and neurodivergent women.
Key themes from the workshops included trauma related to life experiences such as prison, abusive relationships, and homelessness. Participants also shared stories about their traumatic births, which had a lifelong impact on their wellbeing.
Mental health was highlighted, with pregnancy being described as a catalyst for the diagnosis of mental health conditions. Feelings of isolation and post-natal depression were also reported, and the critical role of peer support and community-based organisations were described as lifesaving. Overall, being listened to and having agency were important qualities of care with discussions highlighting further considerations for informed consent, patient empowerment, and human rights.
‘This is just a collage to stop and breathe. Happy Mums gave me hope. They saved my life. I had intentions of not living, anymore. They really helped build me again.’ – One participant describing her collage and the critical role of peer support and community-based organisations
Coming together to animate their stories
The workshops informed the second part of the project. Here, the team consolidated insights through co-creating an animation with a wider group of mums and stakeholders with the aim to communicate key messages from the research to a wider audience, beyond academia. Additional workshops were organised to contribute to the visual narrative, with five participants taking part in a recording session to record their voice-over for the final animation.
‘We found the women that gave so much of themselves and their experience to this project wanted to provide a message of hope for new mums and mums-to-be, but alongside that wanted to place great emphasis on the positive impact of listening on maternal mental health, presenting the idea of "listening as a safety net", while highlighting the consequences of not feeling heard or listened to.’ – Dr Caroline Claisse, lead researcher
A ball of wool and woollen threads is used throughout the animation as the main metaphor to communicate a sense of connection, vulnerability, and care in one’s motherhood journey.
‘I like how the wool is symbolic without being too much. Simplistic visuals are lovely and not overwhelming, it helps create a "could be anyone", "could be me" narrative.’ – One participant
The animation highlights three key messages:
- the women wanted to provide a message of hope for new mums and mums-to-be
- the consequences of not feeling heard and listened to, and the idea of ‘listening as a safety net’
- the need for greater emphasis on the impact of listening on maternal mental health
‘Hearing the stories being spoken by the individual Mums is really good. It makes you believe that these are real experiences from real people. The umbilical cord imagery that runs throughout is a great visual. It gives you the sense that we are all linked and we are not alone.’ – One participant
Animation as a medium for impact
Working with animation as a research output helped us boil down key insights and messages whilst getting them across as succinctly as possible.
We worked with Roots & Wings, a North East England based non-profit design company focussed entirely on projects with social or environmental objectives. The team reflected that animation as a medium was particularly good at affecting people and making them think about societal issues in more personal ways.
‘It makes it more accessible, especially if the topic is really difficult or intense, or something that someone wouldn't come across ever otherwise, I think in the context of our current world filled with short form content and social media, you're probably more likely that someone would watch a video than read 10 pages of text.’ – Artist, Roots & Wings
Participants in a follow-up survey said they found the animation accessible because they could emotionally connect with it and relate to the diverse stories and voices being represented.
‘It really touched my heart. It's amazing, a powerful animation to empower others.’ – One participant
More responses from participants further emphasised the potential of animation for research impact by highlighting aesthetic qualities, and the role both sound and visuals played in fostering empathy.
‘I absolutely loved the animation, I was fascinated by the string and how it moved between each slide. I followed the string and could feel myself connecting with each slide as I did… I loved how the voices were slow then really fast, exaggerating the feel of so many voices and noise during a women's mental health.’ – One participant
What does an inclusive and participatory approach look like for community engagement?
Grounded in a peer-support approach, the project was co-developed from the start with community partners and this enabled the team to build a safe and trusted environment for participants to share their stories and contribute meaningfully to the project.
Professor Abigail Durrant and I collaborated with the Happy Mums Foundation, health inequalities charity Ways to Wellness, and more local community-based partners to best harness relevant expertise and network.
Team members all shared a common passion for community-based work and improving access to health and social care for women from diverse backgrounds.
‘This project represented a radical departure from the kind of interactions we had with researchers as we were truly collaborative, equal partners who were able to drive the direction, content and essence of the research. We felt ownership and as such were able to pass this sense of empowerment and control onto the group members who took part.’ – Sarah Penn, project co-lead, peer researcher & community partner
Making meaningful, long-lasting impact
Through our vast collaborative and creative experience, we understand the value of working together across sectors and expertise. With this animation, we aim to celebrate such collaboration, and remind people that trauma and adversity do not have to mean lifelong consequences.
Our project shows the value of listening as a safety net and also how transformative and healing such process can be.
Since its release last summer, the animation has been shared widely and showcased at an exhibition in the Carlisle’s Tullie Museum. Discussion with key stakeholders also highlighted the potential to use the animation as training resources for NHS and Social Care workforce.
Next, we will use the animation as a vehicle for more discussion and reflection on the importance of listening. We will continue working in dialogue with mums and key partners across the NHS and voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector to envision what a community life-course approach to maternal listening might look like.
‘We are sure you will agree that this short film is both moving and informative - it at once sent shivers down our spines and demonstrated the impact that genuine listening can have on individuals and communities.’ – Hearts & Minds Partnership
The animation was funded by UKRI INCLUDE+ and wider research project by EPSRC Centre for Digital Citizens.
You might also like
- find out more about the author, Dr Caroline Claisse, Lead Researcher and Lecturer in Computing at Newcastle University’s School of Computing
- find out more about Professor Abigail Durrant, Professor of Interaction Design at Newcastle University’s School of Computing
- explore how Newcastle University’s Open Lab brings together human-computer interaction, interaction design and collaborative technologies for societal impact
- explore the work of project collaborators: the Happy Mums Foundation and health inequalities charity Ways to Wellness
- discover the work of Roots & Wings, a north-east based non-profit design company focussed entirely on projects with social or environmental objectives
