*STRONG RESEARCH QUESTION

PGR Training Session: Questions and Argument with Ersi Ioannadou

Reflection- Late February 2023.

The first four months of starting my PhD have been rewarding and enjoyable. I can now answer the question, ‘What is your subject?’ in three words. ‘Advocacy in Pregnancy and Birth.’ That is five, but it is undoubtedly better than the’Ermm, Ummm, It is about birth and such….’

Advocacy - ‘Public support for or recommendation of a particular cause.’ Similar words,’ support for, an argument for, arguing for, calling for, pushing for.’

I feel very privileged to be studying again. Perhaps we should be at least 28 years old before starting postgraduate study and research! From 21 - 23 years old, my M.A. experience was wasted on me.

These first months have been centred on orientating where and how to start the project. The links to the Maternity Unit at Kingston have been fostered over the last few years. Access to the experience of medical practitioners and those working in the clinical setting will be vital in gathering the correct information and stakeholders’ needs. I have been introduced to the team who are responsible for the 11 screening tests offered to pregnant women. I struggle with the term ‘pregnant people’ - I may need to grapple with that a later date.

The screening process has many opportunities to visualise information concisely and correctly. I will be exploring this in the next few months. From the lead of the staff - what information is complex. Which procedures cost the NHS money appointments attended where the protocol for the test is misunderstood or not adhered to?

I am in contact with a doula - a woman, typically without formal obstetric training, who is employed to provide guidance and support to a pregnant woman during labour. She has worked in South America with women without adequate medical care. She is now training to be a midwife in the U.K. She emphasises women getting adequate support from families before, during and postpartum. Meeting her has been an introduction to the staff on the midwifery course at Kingston University.

After completing most of my initial literary review, I am desperate to start making imagery. Interestingly, many of the books on the list that talk candidly about early motherhood’s struggles, boredom, and unexpected challenges are recently published from 2019- onwards. That would suggest that these conversations have an audience as there are so many now being published. On reflection of the visual tests, the animation background is wrong - unintentionally, the grey visual resembles a breast profile. This isn’t ideal as the suggestion that pregnancy occurs in the chest cavity is the polar opposite of this project’s intentions!

I will address this as I work on the animation tests of the two cells meeting, dividing, and developing into an embryo, blastocyte, foetus and a baby to term.

I am going to start the process now of getting ethics clearance, and importantly NHS ethics clearance. I want this research to be based in the community and the hospital setting. Not as suggested by the head of ethics at Kingston Hospital in the Charity Sector. From my understanding, this is not the most straightforward task.

I am finding that my experience of teaching and supporting undergrad students provides a vast range of examples of how we develop as earners, approach strategies to explore material and work through what knowledge domain we have— the potential of communicating this to wider audiences through examples of good practice. My only frustration is being time-poor. Those students have no ideaas I did not either, the luxury of having that time to develop their work.

The meeting with Jon, Hannah and Geoff has provided plenty of direction for the next month, and now that the structure for this reader is established, I can build the next far more quickly.