Amy Dignam 

The pandemic has forced us all to change direction and rethink and reframe what we were doing and how we were doing it. During this time, as if home-schooling 3 children, working on 3 different jobs and taking care of the house wasn’t enough, I took the executive decision to train to become a birth doula. I was determined to make the most of this unreal situation with the vision of coming out to the other side feeling I have achieved something for myself.

That was my act of rebellion towards a society that quickly saw me reverting back to the 1950s. ‘I’m not doing it’, that just wasn’t an option. As some kind of form of escapism or self-care (or both) I decided to introduce something into my life that would have allowed me to concentrate on my personal growth but that would have also served me as a way to make and take space within my domestic realm. 

From my doula studies and my Maternity Voices Partnership work, I felt inspired and produced a new series of work. This work metaphorically represents the crisis we’ve been living through experienced by pregnant women/ pregnant people and mothers/people with caring responsibilities. 

These images try to provide an emotional map where the viewer is invited to get involved in the process of analysing what information has been collected, connecting individuals’ emotions, validating experiences, and encouraging empathy.