Spotlight

Making Change Together

Involving and engaging women from underserved communities in Artificial Intelligence research for labour care and digital health: Making Change Together

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Within maternal health, women from ethnic minorities, low socio-economic backgrounds and women with intersecting vulnerabilities and their babies are more likely to die during childbirth, receive substandard care and have poor care experiences. Furthermore, these women have been historically underrepresented in health research. Engaging underserved women will foster equality, diversity and inclusion in healthcare and research, and support digital innovation to drive health improvements.

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With the aim of bringing together a group of experts by experience to act as critical friends and co-researchers, seven women responded to an open call supported by project partners - Sands, the Raham project and Black Mothers Matter. The team brought clinical, research and medical humanities knowledge and expertise to explore the views of women from underserved communities on the acceptability of Al research in the context of labour care. There is a growing use of Al to support clinicians with risk assessment and outcomes prediction. At present, there is a gap in how individual characteristics - Social Determinants of Health - influence these predictions. Among the general public at large, there is a relatively limited knowledge of Al and trust issues around Al assisting clinicians in making decisions.

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We developed and tested an art-based methodology delivered online to engage and involve the women who volunteered to join this project, with the aim of supporting them to express their views and feelings on this topic as co-researchers, in a space of mutual trust and confidentiality.

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Moreover, co-researchers identified an important gap in current clinical practice and informed a research question which was explored by the co-researchers during a workshop.

We later ran a face-to-face arts workshop with a specific focus on direct experiences of the Cardiotocography (CTG) monitoring (baby's heartbeat and mothers' contractions' monitor) in a diverse, multi-cultural community context. This Bristol group's artistic responses also provided insightful data to inform practical recommendations and improve the quality of care during labour. This project has transformed me personally and professionally, constantly reflecting on the disparities in everyday life encounters and my positionality as a white privileged woman. It has also influenced and steered the direction of my doctoral research.

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Research Lead - Veronica Blanco Gutierrez, Midwife and EPSRC- funded PhD candidate in Digital Health and Care, University of Bristol.

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Collaborators - Artist/Researcher Dr Catherine Lamont-Robinson, University of Bristol Medical School. Evaluation of this research pilot has been supported by Bristol medical student Rhiannon Shaw as both a 'live' documentary artist and the creator of info-graphics for clinical and general public dissemination.

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This exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to showcase the works produced by our co-researchers, to have enriching conversations and to gain feedback from those interested in the topic.

This pilot project was funded by the Public Engagement team at the University of Bristol from the Research England QR

Participatory Research Fund (QR PRF) 2023-24. We have also been invited to showcase this arts-based research as an exhibition with a programme of workshops in Autumn 2025 as part of 'Thinking Futures': the annual Public festival of university research.