UHG - Maternity Revamp
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Objectives:
• Revamp the Interior Design of the low dependency delivery
room at UHG
• Establish art and wellness workshops to nurture and empower
maternity care service users and staff by teaching them
strategies to connect to themselves and others and reduce
stress levels. Art and Wellbeing workshops will be offered
online as an option
• Collect the knowledge, skills and attitudes of women using the
maternity services through the sharing of experiences i.e.; pre- pregnancy, miscarriage, pregnancy, birth and post-partum.
• Create artwork based on themes of nature, concepts of
‘connection’ and ‘nurture’ inspired by the service users and staff
of the maternity section at UHG.
• Option: Create a series of aesthetic and educational
paintings depicting labour positions.
Title: ‘I Can, and I Will’
Idea: Following an interior design revamp to unify the low dependency delivery
room, the proposed piece called ‘I Can, and I will’, (which is named after a positive
affirmation written on wall of this room at present) will enhance the overall sensory
ambience of the room.
Initially, Art and Wellbeing workshops will be established for the HSE maternity
care users and staff to teach strategies to reduce stress. Art and Wellbeing workshops
will be offered online as an option. There will be a focus on themes of nature and
concepts of ‘connection’ and ‘nurture”. Art and Wellbeing workshops will
empower women to express their experiences of pregnancy: before, during and
beyond. Evidence of work will be recorded through artist notes, participants own
artwork, audio and written recordings and through documentary style photography.
Following this the artist will create a series of art pieces that are informed by work
produced during the Art and Wellbeing workshops, a drawing, an intention
developed or even a text account of a labour. The artist will sensitively weave this
information with the interior design revamp. Multiple Cellular forms will appear like
a whisper on the walls of the delivery room. Each cell will contain unique
information specific to a participant from the Art and Wellbeing workshops. Each
story totally unique yet sharing commonalities, will combine to create a connected
conversation of multiple women's birthing experiences. ‘I can and I will’ will serve
as a valuable support to future service users of this low dependency delivery room.
Option: There is the option to have a series of paintings created for the room based
on popular labour positions. The pieces will be both aesthetic and educational and
can be used as focal points in the room. These will be designed during the Art and
Wellbeing workshops and informed by the staff and participants.
*It is noted that the delivery room is a functional space in which artwork
will be carried out in a sensitive, non-disruptive and timely manner. * All
work will be adapted to meet Covid -19 restrictions.
Outcomes:
• Expand on a positive birthing environment by
introducing sensory elements.
• Enhance the wellbeing of the service users and staff
through engagement in Art and Wellbeing workshops.
• Create a site-specific artwork informed by shared
experiences of pregnancy and birth, produced in
workshops to support future users.
• Option: Create a series of aesthetic and educational
paintings depicting labour positions.
“ Nurses can support physiologic birth in different environments
by ensuring a calm environment that helps reduce stress
hormones known to slow labour”
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jogn.2015.12.008
* All work will be adapted to meet Covid -19 restrictions.