Modern activism: our new column
‘As a Black woman, I was five times more likely to die during childbirth. I had to do something’
In our new modern activism column, Sophie Walker, feminist campaigner and author of Five Rules For Rebellion: Let’s Change The World Ourselves, spotlights women fighting for change. This week, she talks to Tinuke Awe, 29, who works in HR in London and is co-founder of Five X More, a campaign she and Clotilde Rebecca Abe set up to improve Black maternal health. Their petition for the Government to take action will be debated in Parliament on 19 April.
Hello Tinuke, how are you?
Frazzled! I’m juggling a lot. I’m a mum of two, I work, I campaign, I have an online platform for mums that I also run and I’m passionate about early years learning.
Wow. Have you always been so propelled?
I didn’t realise I had this campaigning streak until 2018, a year after I had my son. Giving birth was traumatic – I felt I wasn’t taken seriously despite having late-diagnosed pre-eclampsia and being induced – and so many other Black mums said they were going through their labours feeling as though their pain was dismissed and that was leading to further complications. I kept hearing that in the mums group I run.
So you were already curating a space for mums?
I started my first Mums and Tea meet-up when I was eight months pregnant. I was the first among my friends to get pregnant.
And then what happened?
I saw statistics from MBRRACE-UK [which investigates the causes of maternal deaths] saying Black women were five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than White women. I was shocked but not surprised. I realised it had been going on for decades. And now I have a daughter, I wonder if she will be campaigning for the same thing. I had to do something.
So what did you do?
I joined forces with my friend Clo who runs a social enterprise called Prosperitys, which supports Black and South Asian pregnant women. We had to raise awareness: you can’t change what you don’t know about. We worked out how Black women could advocate for themselves and healthcare professionals could better support them – five recommended steps for each – and we created the ‘five times more’ selfie [asking people to hold up their hand like a STOP sign and share using #fivexmore].
What was the driving force behind your campaign?
We used Instagram (@fivexmore_). Around 500 people shared selfies and started having conversations. And we started a petition, asking people to ask the Government to improve Black women’s health outcomes. It picked up momentum in the wake of George Floyd’s death. I created a campaign video asking people to sign – we collected
100,000 signatures within a week.
What’s been your biggest success?
The House of Commons is debating our petition this week and we’re running a month of advocacy in April, leveraging World Health Day and asking people to write to their MPS.
What was your biggest challenge?
Setting boundaries. Taking on other people’s trauma can consume you.
And your biggest learning point?
To focus on the good stuff. It’s a delicate line between wanting to know what’s really happening and wanting to enjoy your pregnancy. We wanted to make sure that Black women came away with positive birth experiences.
How can Grazia readers support you?
Write to your MPS and join our action. It’s all on our website: fivexmore.com.