The Harbour Photovoice Project
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Harbour Project: Using Photovoice to understand the birthing and delivery experience for women who use drugs in the perinatal period
IRAS ID
326965
Contact name
Polly Radcliffe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Pregnant women and mothers who use substances often have complex health and social needs that relate to histories of abuse, poor physical and mental health and poverty. Although women are often keen to engage with prenatal, substance use and other support services in pregnancy, from our research with women who use and are in treatment for substance use, we know that they often find the in-patient experience of giving birth and the immediate postdelivery period in hospital stressful and stigmatising and may often be a period when women disengage.
Art and creative methods can help people to tell stories about experiences and aspects of their lives that are difficult to put into words. This project will use a research method known as photovoice to work with a group of women who have given birth in the last five years and who are in treatment for substance use to explore their experience of giving birth and inpatient care. We will give a small group of women cameras and ask them to take photographs that remind them of the experience of giving birth. Research will be conducted in collaboration with two recovery services in the South of London which offer women based and women only groups. Women will be eligible to participate who have given birth in the last five years and were engaged with substance use treatment at the time of their delivery. Over one month, women will be invited to an initial workshop regarding how to participate in a Photovoice study, a focus group to share their photographs, and a final workshop to discuss how/if they would like to share their photographs. During the focus groups, women will be asked to share the photographs they have taken and describe what they mean to them and also what their photographs can tell us about the experience of giving birth/delivery. With their permission we will audio record these discussions. Co-ownership of the images will be shared among the research team, King’s College London, and the participating women. Considering this, it will ultimately be up to the group whether they wish to share or show their photographs more widely.
We are hoping that this project will lead to a larger study using arts-based methods to explore the experiences of delivery and inpatient care with women who use/and are in treatment for substance use from which we will develop and test out training material with midwives.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/SC/0212
Date of REC Opinion
1 Aug 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion