Midwifery student discusses the importance of Black Breastfeeding Week and her experience studying at UCLan

On the Midwifery, BSc course Revelation has been given an insight into different types of pregnancies and complications that can arise during childbirth. She also learns about infant feeding and the different ways to support families to help them to make informed decisions about their care and breastfeeding journeys.

Revelation is incredibly passionate about Black Breastfeeding Week and uses her personal social media accounts to raise awareness. This is the tenth anniversary of Black Breastfeeding Week, a campaign that focuses on providing black women with the support that they need to breastfeed their children. The FiveXMore campaign shows how black women in the UK are 4-5 times more likely to die or have adverse outcomes during the perinatal period. During her own pregnancies Revelation was directly impacted by these statistics, which has motivated her to train as a midwife to help diversify this area of healthcare.

She believes that having more diversity within the group of midwives who cared for her during her pregnancies could have directly affected the outcome, reducing the physical and mental toll the pregnancies had on her and her baby. She is passionate about breaking down the barriers of institutional racism to ensure that healthcare and the education surrounding it, is inclusive and diverse.

Revelation enjoys studying at UCLan because she is able to access support easily. She also enjoys being able to discuss her experience with maternity services in the UK. Her passion stems from her desire to implement meaningful change for pregnant people and their families and UCLan offers her the opportunity to pursue her specific interests as her tutors actively looks for ways to encompass these into teaching, either through lectures or case-based learning.

Having had the ability to gain hands-on experience through her placements, she is extremely interested in supporting with infant feeding and providing mental support where necessary. She also advocates for breastfeeding and looks for ways to help new parents meet their breastfeeding goals in a sustainable way.

Once Revelation graduates, she hopes to be signed off as a competent midwife but is undecided on her specialism due to discovering many areas of passion and interest through her course.