On Monday 4 November 2024, The Motivational Mums Club brought together Students, Allies, Midwives, the community of Black mothers, Doctors, Charity CEOs, a Member of parliament, and Commissioners for us to present our report on our peer support group called ‘Mummas Together’ which supports Black Mothers with their mental health to reduce disparities.

Throughout the conference, we explored crucial themes and topics, including addressing mental health inequalities and achieving equity, support, and lived experiences and personal stories.

We had speakers such as:

Kate Brintworth – Chief Midwifery Officer for England, NHS England
Mitra Bakhtiari – Director of Midwifery, Gynaecology Nursing for King’s College Hospital 
Abena Oppong-Asare, MP and Parliamentary Secretary 
Dr Michelle Peter – Senior Social Scientist, GOSH and UCL

Action on Postpartum Psychosis
NHS England (Rebecca Gilbert and Rachel Heathcock) with Holland and House Production Company

And a brilliant panel discussion from

Justine Cawley – Mother and Baby Unit Lead for City & Hackney and Clinical Director
Dr Orinayo Onabanjo – Perinatal Psychologist 
Dr Julie Hammond – Dr and GP and Award-Winning Women’s Health Advocate 
Agnes Agyepong – CEO and Founder of Black SEND Child, Global Black Maternal Health
Two lived experiences from our Greenwich and Bexley peer support group.

As our CEO/Founder, and Host of the Conference said “It’s important to have something you stand by, and it’s important that you’re not afraid to share it. With that being my biggest lesson learnt,  there no better time for us as a collective to make a difference to drive change and make services equitable. Let’s use our influence to start change.” – Chrissy Brown

The success of the Conference would not have been possible without the unwavering support from King’s College Hospital London, the midwives who attend our peer support groups daily, along with our support system for MMC.

We have helped over 3,500 mothers over 6 years through the Motivational Mums Club mental health sessions, and our peer support group since last year September has helped over 500 Black mothers.