Dr. Jenna Pandeli, Dr Chloe Tarrabain & Dr Mahwish Khan
Welcome to the home of our research on ‘The Invisible Labour of New Mothers on Maternity Leave in a Global Pandemic’.
Here you will find our full research report, a short video that gives you an insight into our research findings, and you will also find additional information and resources related to the research.
So, why did we start this project?
All three of us gave birth at different stages during the global Pandemic, Chloe in March 2020, Mahwish in June 2020, and Jenna in September 2020. As a result, this research has been a complete labour of love and a cathartic experience for all of us. Like most women who gave birth during the intermittent lockdowns, we found the experience difficult, if not traumatic, and often felt ignored, isolated and undermined – people just did not seem to understand the magnitude of impact that Covid had on our maternity and early experiences of motherhood. In speaking to other mothers, we knew we weren’t alone and as such we thought it was important to give voice to these women and to make their, and our, experiences a little more visible.
What’s the purpose of our research?
As the research progressed, we realised that a lot of the difficulties we faced were typical of maternity leave more generally (e.g. loneliness, guilt, monotony) and covid simply exacerbated these difficulties. Therefore, we think our research has two key purposes; 1) To provide an understanding of the experiences of maternity leave during the covid pandemic, to place them in history and to document their stories, 2) To highlight, more generally, the invisible work/hidden layers of work that are undertaken during maternity leave that can be all consuming and cause burnout.
Get in touch!
We hope you enjoy reading the report/watching the video and that it gives you some insight into the experiences of our participants on maternity leave during the pandemic. If you have any questions or would like to collaborate or discuss this research with us in more detail, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via [email protected] . We feel so passionately about this work and want our research to have practical implications and be used widely, so feel free to share!
Warm wishes
Jenna, Chloe and Mahwish.
