Research in the archives highlights three key factors potentially affecting the health of Black mothers: divergent experience of reproductive health services, the impacts of the conditions on women’s mental health and the stress of parenting in a hostile environment.
A Black mother’s caring responsibilities included a need to protect and defend their children. “After working all day… it is we Black mothers who have to go down and take on the schools and the teachers”, outlined the introductory talk at the 1979 OWAAD conference. “…it is the Black mothers who suffer most when our youth are picked up and harassed by the police on trumped charges like SUS, and many a Black mother has come under the attack of police when she rose in defence of her child”. Moreover, there was a perception that Britain simply was not a psychologically safe place for some. “Black and minority ethnic women who suffer with mental distress often have their conditions exacerbated”, stated the writer, researcher and campaigner, Melba Wilson, in A-Z of Race Issues in Mental Health, a publication by the mental health charity Mind, “because of the added isolation and stress associated with being Black in a predominantly white society”. There was a sense that responses of health services – typically either prescription drugs or institutionalisation – were inadequate. Melba Wilson notes that when it came to Black people’s mental health needs, it was Black organisations helping to fill the void.
[Image: A-Z of Race Issues in Mental Health, Melba Wilson, WILSON/13]
Finally, reproductive rights were another issue on which some Black women’s groups raised awareness and campaigned around. These rights cover “a woman’s right to choose”, reads writings of the Brixton Black Women Group (BBWG), “if, when and how many children to have”, and includes access to safe contraception. Some Black women faced barriers to accessing abortion services in requests for proof of immigration status before advice or treatment. There were also concerns that the Depo Provera contraceptive injection was unsafe and being used on Black women without their informed consent, not to mention reports of forced sterilisation. These were some of the unique, yet less broadly discussed predicaments faced by Black mothers.
[Image: Ban the Jab flyer, DADZIE/4/11]
