{"id":302,"date":"2024-05-02T05:52:37","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T05:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontlineculture.net\/?p=302"},"modified":"2024-11-19T10:19:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T10:19:01","slug":"music-maternal-health-and-the-creative-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontlineculture.net\/?p=302","title":{"rendered":"Music, maternal health, and the creative self"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflecting on the transformative impact of Live Music Now\u2019s Lullaby project during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2024. Photo credit: Live Music Now Cymru<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\" Led by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership, the theme for Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 is \u2018Rediscovering You\u2019. Running between 29th<\/sup> April and 5th<\/sup> May, the national campaign includes daily online, focussed Information Sessions and conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s discussions centre on \u2018finding you\u2019, including feelings and experiences of identity transformation in the perinatal period. This resonates with research I have undertaken in collaboration with Live Music Now (LMN), on the impact and value of the Lullaby<\/em> project<\/a> for participating women on their own perinatal journeys in North West England and South Wales. The collaboration began in early 2021, in conversation with LMN and the NHS Improving Me women\u2019s health and maternity programme for Cheshire and Merseyside (project commissioners). This led to the co-design of a research framework<\/a> that was subsequently used to evaluate the project in the Swansea Bay area in 2022, led by Live Music Now Cymru (LMNC) with funding from Arts Council Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delivered in community settings in Neath, Port Talbot, and Tonna Hospital Perinatal Inpatient Mental Health Unit, in collaboration with Swansea Bay University Health Board and Flying Start early years programme, the project had a transformative impact for different participating women with their own individual life stories, personal circumstances and experiences of perinatal trauma. It had a different meaning for example for women experiencing motherhood for the first time at different ages and life stages, but with one abiding principle and shared experience \u2013 the power of creativity in \u2018feeling like me again\u2019 and in (re)discovering their creative selves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pioneered by Carnegie Hall<\/a> in New York over 10 years ago, the Lullaby<\/em> project pairs new mothers and parents with professional musicians to co-create an original lullaby for their babies and infants. Based on a social prescribing model, women are usually referred to the programme by collaborating health and social care services after experiencing maternal mental health challenges. Women worked with professional LMNC musicians in hour-long sessions over an eight-week period, on a one-to-one basis and as part of group activities with their babies and young children. Lullabies were composed collaboratively using a range of techniques and branded resources (e.g. Lullaby<\/em> journals), and then recorded professionally as keepsakes and performed in public venues, including for example the Princess Royal Theatre in Port Talbot. Celebratory performance events functioned as the \u2018premiere\u2019 for new lullabies, with partners and family members often hearing them for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualitative research interviews with a volunteer group of participating women enabled an in-depth consideration of the impact of the project on their subjective wellbeing and self-efficacy (as per research design) in context<\/em>, particularly in relation to understanding each woman\u2019s motivation to take part to begin with, their subsequent capacity for change and the unique contribution of Lullaby<\/em> as a creative intervention in their individual and deeply personal maternal journeys. One anxious young woman who routinely avoids social situations described the empowering value of Lullaby<\/em> as a creative, social space, both for herself and baby. The project provided an invaluable boost to her self-confidence, both personally and as a new mother. The fulfilment and self-recognition gained by working collaboratively with professional musicians to compose a professionally produced, unique lullaby was especially powerful for her:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t take compliments well, so when I have [professional musicians] telling me how well I\u2019m doing, how lovely [baby] is\u2026 it was a confidence builder just to believe in myself\u2026 I\u2019m able to do anything if I really put my mind to it\u2026 Being taught by someone who is in that industry, telling you that you\u2019ve got something that\u2019s good, that boosts you a little bit\u2026 [the lullaby] is meaningful to you\u2026 it\u2019s from your heart.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another woman who had recently become a mother for the first time (unexpectedly) in her early forties, shared quite profound reflections on what motherhood means to her based on her own early childhood experiences, her relationship with her own mother, and how the Lullaby<\/em> experience had shaped her understanding of her creative capabilities, the influence of parental responsibility on a child\u2019s social development, and the type of mother she wants to be. This element of self-realisation and recognition was a recurring feature of our conversations with participating women. In one conversation with a woman who had been an in-patient at the perinatal mental health unit, the impact of creativity as an introspective process was particularly evident. She had played tenor horn to grade 6 as a teenager and previously sang in a choir – she was reminded of that experience and saw the project as an opportunity to re-connect with her creative self.  She spoke movingly of the feelings of pride, togetherness and solidarity evoked by the project:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never envisaged it would be as amazing as it was\u2026 I was amazed when I went on the first day how special it was\u2026 All of us came together and made something really nice out of what is not really a great situation\u2026 it\u2019s a positive out of a negativity of feeling so rubbish, you know\u2026 For a moment in those sessions I felt like a normal mum\u2026 it gave me a nice feeling where I could almost forget about stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The extent to which participating women now feel able to represent and promote the project, and enthusiastically encourage others to take part, is also illustrative of improved confidence and agency, especially for those who were nervous to begin with about the creative process. The sense that all individual women\u2019s creative contributions are valuable, based on their personal relevance and significance, is reflective of the impact of the project on participating women\u2019s self-worth and resilience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026 just do it! Don\u2019t worry about little things\u2026 I know some people might be apprehensive about the writing\u2026 I know some mums who say oh God I could never sit down and write like that\u2026 but it\u2019s not there to be judged it\u2019s there to express how you\u2019re feeling, and see the lullaby come from that\u2026 whatever you put down, with the help and guidance of the musicians you will get where you need to be\u2026 it just comes from the heart\u2026 it doesn\u2019t have to be perfect, word for word, it just comes from how you<\/em> feel, there\u2019s no right or wrong\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since completion of the Swansea Bay project, Lullaby<\/em> has gone from strength to strength across Wales under LMNC\u2019s stewardship, with additional projects in Anglesey, Bridgend and Cardiff. Do take a moment to listen to the wonderful original lullabies<\/a> being created by participating women during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, as examples of the power of creativity in Rediscovering You. You can also read the full evaluation report here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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