Volunteer Spotlight: Beti Brown, Amma Birth Companions
Amma Birth Companions are a Glasgow-based charity that offer care, advice and advocacy for expectant parents without during pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period. We spoke to one of their volunteers to discuss how and why their work is invaluable for the people they support.
As told to Rhiannon J Davies | Portrait by Virginie Chabrol
I did an art degree a million years ago. Then floated around doing art teaching and other jobs. A couple of months into the pandemic, a friend of mine involved with Glasgow Mutual Aid dropped a load of nappies off to Amma Birth Companion and texted me to tell me about them.
I always felt I had a wee bit of a calling to work in this area. I did think of applying to study midwifery, but attending some births has put me off. We see the sharp end of the system that birthing people from marginalised backgrounds experience. It’s not that midwives are themselves bad, but the state of the system they are in leads to bad care.
For example, there is often a lack of consent for vaginal exams, or lack of interpretation provision. There are also high rates of intervention, like inductions for dubious reasons. Sometimes these interventions can be necessary and lifesaving, but they are massively over-used – particularly with women of colour and those who have histories of trauma, poverty, or experience in the asylum system- as is the case with most of our clients.
When I did my training, it was during the pandemic so it was online. Now it’s in person as some of it can be quite rough going and we need to make sure that everyone feels supported. It digs into the context of asylum process, trauma and sexual violence, as well as the physiology of birth, how to support people through it, maintaining boundaries, postnatal care, breastfeeding support and lots more.
The women we support are vulnerable, marginalised and facing birth alone and the majority are in the asylum process. Birth is such an intimate and vulnerable time, it can be so hard if you are isolated from family and community. Birth companions get in touch with the client at the start of the third trimester. From week 37, you’re on call and need to be ready for the call at all times!
With the first birth I attended, when I got the call she was moving to the labour ward, I’ve never moved so fast in my life! She was incredible, but having been induced days earlier she’d had hardly anything to eat and very little rest so eventually had to go for an emergency caesarean section. Some aspects can be difficult to witness, but I was glad to be there for her. She was a young Kurdish woman who couldn’t speak English. When we heard this little baby cry, the light just came back on in her eyes. I cry at every single birth. I try not to, but I can’t help it. It’s a privilege to be a witness to that moment.
The first six births I attended all went to emergency caesarean sections. Medical staff are so risk averse and use interventions to try to minimise risks, particularly with our client group – it’s the way they try to deal with the fact that Black maternal mortality rates are so high. But they’re so focused on avoiding the low chance of catastrophic injury that they actually cause much higher risk levels of further interventions, complications and birth trauma.
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When births don’t go to plan you’re there to hold space for them to say no to interventions if that’s what they want, or support them if they say yes. After the birth, we also provide post-natal support and have a peer support group which has weekly drop-ins and sessions on things like yoga, baby wearing and making baby food.
It has been completely life changing. I’ve done a lot of work in the third sector, but I’ve never come across an organisation that puts so much energy into supporting volunteers. Twice a month there are group supervisions with a psychotherapist. That’s almost unheard of, but it’s necessary.
There is trauma, but it’s also really beautiful. You get to work with the most incredible women, many of whom have done terrifying journeys, they’ve faced so much hardship and now they’re entering a new part of their life. Being able to be the person there to hold her as she gets ready to hold a little person is amazing. It’s a very meaty volunteer role, with a lot to do and a lot to learn, but a very amazing way to do it.
Amma Birth Companions take applications for volunteers on a rolling basis. They are also currently hiring for a part-time communications officer; applications are due by 22nd September. For more info on all their opportunities, visit: ammabirthcompanions.org