Employing the arts for knowledge production and translation: Visualizing new possibilities for women speaking up about safety concerns in maternity

Abstract

ObjectivesThis project used animated film to translate research findings into accessible health information aimed at enabling women to speak up and secure professional help for serious safety concerns during pregnancy and after birth. We tested as proof of concept our use of the arts both as product (knowledge production) and process (enabling involvement).BackgroundEmergencies during pregnancy and birth, while unusual, can develop rapidly and unexpectedly, with catastrophic consequences. Women's tacit knowledge of changes in their condition is an important resource to aid early detection, but women can worry about the legitimacy of their concerns and struggle to get these taken seriously by staff.DesignArts‐based knowledge translation. A user group of women who had experienced complications in the perinatal period (n = 34) helped us develop and pilot test the animation. Obstetricians and midwives (15), clinical leads (3) and user group representatives (8) helped with the design and testing.FindingsThe consultation process, script and storyboard enabled active interaction with the evidence, meaningful engagement with stakeholders and new understandings about securing help for perinatal complications. The method enabled us to address gender stereotypes and social norms about speaking up and embed a social script for women within the animation, to help structure their help seeking. While for some women, there was an emotional burden, the majority were glad to have been part of the animation's development and felt it had enabled their voices to be heard.ConclusionThis project has demonstrated the benefits of arts‐science collaborations for meaningful co‐production and effective translation of research evidence.

A framework to guide storytelling as a knowledge translation intervention for health-promoting behaviour change

“…It is time-intensive to develop a story with stakeholder input [ 15 , 39 ], and it is less challenging ethically and practically to develop stories using research evidence alone [ 40 , 41 ]. However, without community input, researchers risk overlooking important contextual factors in message development and delivery.…”

“…The available funds will affect the level of production and ability to create engagement [ 39 ]. One of the advantages of storytelling is that it can be cost-effective for researchers using formats such as simple text, PowerPoint presentations that include storytelling elements, or other formats that require little editing and printing resources.…”

Methods to Generate Innovative Research Ideas and Improve Patient and Public Involvement in Modern Epidemiological Research: Review, Patient Viewpoint, and Guidelines for Implementation of a Digital Cohort Study

“…In addition, the number of participants by workshop or by discussion group may be limited. Mackintosh et al [17] proposed separate groups of users and service providers of 3-4 people. In contrast, Kelemen et al [18] organized full-day workshops with 20 to 25 participants of different origins and ages and divided into 2 groups randomly assigned.…”

“…Frequency, n (%) Type of involvement [18,20,[22][23][24][25][26][27]30,[32][33][34][35][36]134] 60 (62) Generation of new ideas [17,19,23,30,[32][33][34][35][36][37]39,41,49,54,55,59,60,[65][66][67][68][69]74,75,78,81,[83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92]…”

Arts-based approaches to public engagement with research: Lessons from a rapid review

“…However, arts-based engagement approaches can also be used to provide insights of relevance for the research itself and how it evolves, for example, to help provide new interpretations of research data that can help in sense-making [17,39]. To illustrate, a research project examining how to translate women's experiences of responses to their safety concerns in pregnancy into useful health information used insights gained from participants in the development of a health information resource for pregnant women to evolve the scope of the research study [40]. The project's objective was to create a health information resource for pregnant women in the form of an animation that would be shared on social media.…”