Engender blog
GUEST BLOG: Pregnancy and bereavement during Covid-19
We've been working with the ALLIANCE and The Health and Social Care Academy to gather information about experiences of pregnancy and maternity services during Covid-19 from women across Scotland. Alongside our work, we're sharing a series of guest blogs reflecting on those experiences. Here, Kerry Walsh reflects on navigating pregnancy and grief alongside the challenges of the pandemic.
[Content Note: this blog discusses baby loss and mentions infertility, please read with care.]
Have you experienced any of the following during Covid-19?
- Pregnancy
- Miscarriage/Baby Loss
- Infertility
As I looked at this question on the survey, realising that I could tick every box, I reflected upon the past two years, and the care that I received during some of the most joyful, exciting, painful and challenging periods of my life.
Cost of Living Crisis: Gaps in support for women on low incomes in Scotland
As part of our blog series on the cost of living crisis, Laura Robertson from The Poverty Alliance talks about their recent report with the Scottish Women's Budget Group on the detrimental impacts on the lives of women living on low-incomes in Scotland caused by the crisis.
“I spoke to my friend who told me she has been starving and only eats at night. I have started doing that though it didn’t go well with me the first day, but I will get used to it.” (Idia, aged 35-44, lone mother and asylum seeker)
The cost of living crisis is having devastating impacts on people living on low incomes in Scotland. Research with 38 women affected by the cost of living crisis in Scotland published in November by the Poverty Alliance and the Scottish Women’s Budget Group reveals the devastating impacts on women living in a range of circumstances across Scotland. Our research found that women are facing deepening levels of poverty and hardship as they struggle to afford essentials. This blog examines gaps in support for women living on low incomes, reflecting on both the Autumn Statement and the Scottish Budget.
GUEST BLOG: Pregnancy in lockdown: Leaving joy out of it
We've been working with the ALLIANCE and The Health and Social Care Academy
to gather information about experiences of pregnancy and maternity
services during Covid-19 from women across Scotland. Alongside our work,
we're sharing a series of guest blogs reflecting on those experiences.
Here, Kirsty Kinloch talks about the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 and pregnancy in 2020.
The Coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns and restrictions changed the whole experience for those who were pregnant during 2020 and 2021. It’s an anxious experience in normal times, but add a deadly virus, the removal of your entire support system and healthcare restrictions, and you’ve got a recipe for worry. When I think back over my pregnancy and the early life of my daughter, I am sad to say that the overwhelming feeling is one of disappointment.
GUEST BLOG: My “unremarkable” pandemic pregnancy
We've been working with the ALLIANCE and The Health and Social Care Academy to gather information about experiences of pregnancy and maternity services during Covid-19 from women across Scotland. Alongside our work, we're sharing a series of guest blogs reflecting on those experiences. Here, Sarah Robinson Galloway looks back on pregnancy in the early stages of the pandemic.
It’s Boxing Day 2019, I’m in my sister-in-law’s bathroom early in the morning doing a pregnancy test. I already knew I was pregnant, despite it only being two or three weeks, this was just to confirm so I wasn’t second-guessing myself. It’s positive, I tell my husband and we’re excited to be on our second pregnancy journey. We weren’t worried, we had done this before and had one beautiful wee girl already.
GUEST BLOG: Lockdown (maternity) leave
We've been working with the ALLIANCE and The Health and Social Care Academy to gather information about experiences of pregnancy and maternity services during Covid-19 from women across Scotland. Alongside our work, we're sharing a series of guest blogs reflecting on those experiences. Here, Eilidh shares her experience of post-partum support during the pandemic.
My eldest was born in early March 2020, meaning my pregnancy and birth happened back in the old normal, where facemasks were rare and social distancing wasn’t a phrase yet. We left hospital to the same kind of new normal that every new parent enters, where days merge together in a haze of sleepless nights, breastfeeding and nappies. We had visits from family and tried to find our feet, mostly unaware of the world changing outside.
RSSDownloads
Engender Briefing: Pension Credit Entitlement Changes
From 15 May 2019, new changes will be introduced which will require couples where one partner has reached state pension age and one has not (‘mixed age couples’) to claim universal credit (UC) instead of Pension Credit.
Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism
Engender welcomes this Scottish Parliament Debate on Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism and the opportunity to raise awareness of the ways in which women in Scotland’s inequality contributes to gender-based violence.
Gender Matters in Social Security: Individual Payments of Universal Credit
A paper calling on the Scottish Government to automatically split payments of Universal Credit between couples, once this power is devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Gender Matters Manifesto: Twenty for 2016
This manifesto sets out measures that, with political will, can be taken over the next parliamentary term in pursuit of these goals.
Scottish NGO Briefing for UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Joint briefing paper for the UN Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.
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