Slow is a project which reflects on anecdotal experiences of childbirth, focusing on postpartum recovery and rehabilitation as a means to think through standards of care and societal expectations. It reflects on the antenatal journey of expectant people highlighting their expectations of childbirth, their actual experiences and the subsequent postpartum journey.
Postpartum as a term depicts the specific time after childbirth experienced by people with the word postnatal describing that of the child. In the UK the role of each phase is both intertwined and yet vastly different when considered and reflected upon side by side.
Childbirth as a subject is both academically and anecdotally well discussed with plenty of publications dedicated to the subject, copious online articles listing and discussing the after effects and NCT classes (National Childbirth Trust) created to enable first time parents a glimpse into the reality.
Having said this many people in the UK come away from the experience struggling either emotionally, physically or both. As a project Slow will look at and recount the expectations of people giving birth- reflecting and underscoring their physical experience as a result of childbirth, it will draw upon these anecdotal experiences to think through our current climate of support within the UK.
The title of the project is a push away from ideologies that suggest individuals are ‘good to go’ at their 6 week postpartum GP check, a passage away from notions of a speedy recovery, reframing childbirth recovery as a slow endeavour which coupled with demands of a new child leave people in spaces of possible insecurity and isolation. This of course has been heightened in the last year due to the Covid pandemic leaving new parents struggling against the tide of a healthcare system reframed as a pandemic response unit.
The project will initially centre the stories of 6 women as a starting point collected through an open dialogue- these conversations will not necessarily have a structure but will be open to interpretation from the mother. Each story is then written down by the Mum in her own words and added to an archive as a space of learning to form new knowledge and exchange thoughts, raising awareness and understanding of postpartum experience, discovery and rehabilitation.
Alongside each story the words and thoughts are captured in a one-off unique illustration by London-based illustrator Rosa Gamsu as a way to mark the story and describe its effect, these illustrations also add a new layer of reading and create a visual representation of the postpartum journey.
Slow considers the difference in expectation between our health service and the parents' experience. It questions how we could support one another more holistically as well as thinking through possible gaps in generational knowledge sharing. The outcome of childbirth is so much more than a child, its result often locates the physical experience as a space of emotional trauma. Residual after effects dislocate the person who has given birth from their body and in the wake of this during a time of extreme physical demand a new resilience has to be located, fought for and in many ways created from scratch as those that give birth navigate their new bodies and its demands.
Rosa Gamsu bio
Rosa Gamsu is a UK-based Illustrator whose practice takes its inspiration from dismantling societal constructs as well as representations of cult iconography. As such a main stay of Rosa’s wry graphic approach centres ideas of sexuality in the 21st century and how to disrupt its power and presence. She creates poignant work which often re-interprets how we understand and view ideas of the everyday, adding weight and substance but also creating visually impressive, arresting and accessible imagery. Her practice is mainly rooted in animation and digital drawing as well as drawing and working by hand or 3D. She is currently studying BA in Illustration at Camberwell College, UAL.
https://rmgamsu.wixsite.com/mysite
https://www.instagram.com/eyyart/
