Midwifery education in practice
The art of midwifery: Can creative images of birth enhance holistic care?

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Abstract

Art related to birth stimulates debate, particularly if it is perceived to be taboo and challenging popular images of mother and child. Birth traditionally has been in a woman's sphere of experience, thus it has been left unexplored on a wider level. The Birth Rites Collection was originally developed to enable partnerships with artists and childbirth professionals. The other important reason for the Birth Rites project was to begin to make contemporary cutting edge art around childbirth because there has been a real lack of work which explores this subject. Student midwives have been able to engage with these and other artworks related to childbirth and now produce their own original art which is attracting acclaim. The Art of Midwifery student midwife project aims to promote more aesthetic and creative ways of learning to enhance midwifery students' self-awareness and thus promote holistic, woman-centred and sensitive care. Students have visited art exhibitions to interact with artworks related to curriculum themes and explore models and philosophies of birth. This paper reports some of their activities, summarises their responses and evaluates the collaboration.

Section snippets

Background

The Art of Midwifery project commenced in November 2008 with a visit to the Birth Rites Collection Exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery, following its success at the International Confederation of Midwives Congress in Glasgow. Student midwives were able to interact with the artworks in relation to exploration of birth philosophies and models of care; part of the Birth Rites Collection is now housed within Salford University's Midwifery Directorate and the Royal College of Obstetrician and

Art in midwifery education

Education has a key role to play in preparing the midwives of the future to celebrate the magic of birth (Anderson, 2006) and to harness the power and energy of the arts to develop the skills that women value in midwives (Anderson and Davies, 2004). Bass (2007) suggests the midwife needs to nurture students, role modelling the qualities we wish them to develop in a respectful relationship that values the spiritual awareness of woman, midwife and student. The dissonance between the holistic and

Evaluation

Due to the innovative nature of the project it was important to capture student views to determine the value of integrating arts based activities within the curriculum. Worksheets and questionnaires were compiled for each activity and responses coded anonymously.

Student responses to Birth Rites exhibition

Students commented on the negativity evident in some of the art, arguably women who have negative experiences of birth will undoubtedly be able to channel this experience into art in some way, this could even be therapeutic. The question we could ask ourselves as midwives is perhaps why there are not more positive portrayals of birth and how art can be utilised positively to promote normality and celebrate birth.

  • The opportunity to explore the reflections of student midwives was fascinating–

  • How

‘Terese crowning in ecstatic childbirth’ image from Ina May's guide to childbirth – how does this image make you feel?

‘I like this image it shows the woman is in control and the health professionals are very supportive’ (Terese 1); ‘Initially I was disturbed as it is quite a provocative image during a time when a baby is about to be born. I then considered the woman's thoughts, e.g. she has been waiting for this moment for 9 months, she has achieved so much, etc, and began to like the picture as it represents her dreams, hopes and physical achievements' (Terese 2); ‘I feel this is a normal image and don't find

What did you think of the Ping Qiu terracotta ceramics?

‘I didn't get this, I found it strange’ (Ping 1); ‘Strange, eyecatching’ (Ping 3); ‘Weird, disturbing’ (Ping 4); ‘Interesting. Not harsh. Soothing shapes/softness/colour/texture. Looked like pigs. Pregnant pigs? Body parts associated with sex/conception/penis and testicles/teats/breasts’ (Ping 7); ‘Didn't get these’ (Ping 8).

It could be argued that sex relates to childbirth full stop, finding them ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘bizarre’ may be partly held attitudes to the body. And yet they were more

Ongoing activities

Inspired by the potential of this type of work a bid was submitted to the University Vice Chancellor's Annual Fund in 2010 to seek funding for a continuation of activities. This was utilised to visit the Mary Kelly Retrospective at the Whitworth gallery in Manchester, particularly concerning the Post-partum document (Kelly, 1999) which charts the artist and her son's postnatal journey, conceptualising the mother–child relationship as it unfolds through a 5 year period (1973–1979) through

Can art be useful to help promote normality in birth? Or help us better understand women's perspective of birth?

24 out of 37 respondents replied affirmatively, with the remainder less positive. Positive themes included: ‘demystifying childbirth’ (Art 1), ‘empowering women and illustrating their perspectives’ (Art 5); and ‘promoting natural behaviours’ (Art 4). And whilst ‘everyone has their own perceptions of birth & of art’ (Art 8); less positive or more equivocal comments included: ‘Some people may dislike some pieces of art representing birth’ (Art 9); ‘If a person is into art then yes. Some people

Student comments – art workshops

A smaller group of seven students opted to take part in a series of six optional art workshops facilitated by an art lecturer with materials provided such as a sketchbook, paints, brushes and canvases. The work produced has been exhibited at several university and external events and is being sought after for display within local birth centres. The work seen below speaks for itself in terms of its quality and meaning, however the students developed not only skills in artistic techniques but

Student participant

‘I have no idea why I attended the first workshop other than it seemed like a good idea at the time. I hadn't drawn since I was about 14 & really wondered what I was going to do. I was excited about developing ideas with the other girls to see what we could come up with, however what I found was my Art let me walk away from my study at home, it let me draw what I had in my head, not that anyone else would understand it, but it was out there.

I have learnt that I can do something that doesn't

Comments from art lecturer

‘After only three sessions with me, the students have produced a vast amount of vibrant and meaningful pieces of work. This is due mostly to the calibre and enthusiasm of this fabulous group. In future, we may have a better idea of what materials particular students would prefer to work with. Maybe students could have the responsibility of purchasing some of the materials individually. Hopefully the materials purchased will be used again if this project runs in subsequent years. The idea of

Student comments on art produced in the workshops

Whilst not all of the students wanted to produce artwork themselves they were positive about their colleagues efforts: ‘I did not produce any pieces of art but was impressed by attempts made by others’ (Student 6); ‘Very Very good. Represents the HEART of midwifery’ (Student 8); ‘I think there all great, everyone has such a different style, but it is amazing to see. Also like how the work almost worships the pregnant state, giving power to the woman’ (Student 15).

Comments from the public

When the work was displayed in a public exhibition space visitors were also appreciative: ‘The exhibition is fantastic. We were just passing by and took a look. For students who are not studying art the work is inspiring’ (Public 1); ‘A great exhibition, nice to see the midwife artistic side as well as the clinical & caring aspects of their job. Well done!’ (Public 3); ‘Wonderful exhibition. Great addition to the curriculum. Keep up the great work.’ (Public 4); ‘Fantastic artwork, really

Ongoing plans

We hope to widen participation across disciplines and continue curriculum related activities even if some students find it challenging; a number of students have signed up to a series of optional student experience activities. Immediate plans include workshops for students to explore diverse aspects of creativity including pottery, textiles, and dance. At the pottery workshop students will be supported by a Midwifery lecturer who is also a potter to produce a composite ceramic piece exploring

Conclusion

Despite the call to nurture creativity in Higher Education (Florida, 2005, Florida, 2002) the difficulty of integrating creative approaches are highlighted by Gibson (2010). Even on an individual basis creativity can be challenging, Davies (2007) suggests it becomes stifled and suppressed as we get older; this is articulated in the Robinson Report (2000) where at the age of 5, a child's potential for creativity is 98%; yet by the age of 10, this reduces to 30%; 12% at age 15; and 2% at

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all of the students who have joined in activities, particularly the students who spent their leisure time working on producing outstanding art work – Cathy Grimsditch, Julie Haigh, Carrie-Ann Langley, Becca Marsh Lucy Haslam, Jemmima Powell and Danielle Trow.

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