By Pere DeRoy
Pere DeRoy is a Reproductive Health Policy Researcher & Analyst
Bring knowledge back to the community
It was the third and final night of the Redefining Childbearing and Pregnancy-Management Care Exhibition at Black Magenta in downtown Georgetown. A diverse group was gathered, people of many ages, ethnicities and professions. Some of the people gathered were returning to the exhibit for the third night, others were there for the first time. After taking in dozens of illustrations, informational posters, and a mix of antique and contemporary tools, models and treatments from health systems for reproductive health, people were gathered together to watch the evening’s panelists speak. Joy Marcus, women’s rights activist, was delivering the opening remarks on behalf of one of the event’s co-sponsors, Red Thread, one of Guyana’s most prominent women’s rights organizations. She shared with the gathered crowd that when I, a Guyanese scholar studying to get my PhD, had approached her in 2020 about supporting my research, she had agreed with one great reminder: don’t extract people’s stories and experiences, write an academic paper, get a degree, keep the information to myself. Joy reminded me to commit to finding a way to share my findings in an accessible way to the people. Finding an accessible way to share my research findings as a health promotion initiative with a wider public was the goal of the Redefining Childbearing and Pregnancy-Management Care Exhibition.
Research on Maternal mortality in Georgetown, Guyana
Between 2019 and 2024, I carried out empirical policy analysis research to examine childbearing experiences in relation to reproductive-maternal health policy-programs to explore what accounts for Guyana’s high maternal mortality ratio despite increasing investments and developments in healthcare over the years. I completed this research case study as part of my doctoral studies. Now having completed the research, I challenged myself to disseminate the findings of my research in an accessible form to Guyanese, that will also have a lasting impact. An impact that would push us to insert justice into ideas of care, and practices of caring for the peoples of this land.
Being attentive through the Arts
My doctoral research revealed the ways in which maternal death and childbirth experiences are entangled with shame, silence, lack of bodily autonomy, sexuality, reproductive health, the right to choose to parent or not, informed consent, obstetric violence, gender-based violence, and a colonial history of pregnancy management that lives on today. This entanglement presented a conundrum of complexity and trauma that I believed could be addressed through visual art, public scholarship, and in general taking a trauma-informed approach to delivering the content. This desire culminated in me creating and co-hosting The Redefining Childbearing and Pregnancy-Management Care Exhibition between August 2nd and 5th in collaboration with the Institute of Gender Studies (IGS) at the University of Guyana.
Taking a public-scholarship approach, the exhibition featured visual storytelling that included canvas illustrations, antique gynecological and obstetric instruments, 3-D models of the male and female anatomy, components of sexual and reproductive healthcare for pregnancy management, traditional medicine that included bushes and acupuncture, and general sexual and reproductive health information spanning colonial public health programs for maternal healthcare care, to current international models and contexts of unaddressed widespread gender-based violence against women and girls. The exhibition aimed to contribute to initiatives that improve maternal and reproductive health by taking the audience on a journey of understanding how the environment impacts capabilities to lead in childbearing decisions, quality of maternal healthcare provision, and the person expected to carry the baby.
I presented my findings in two languages. The first was charts, graphs, and reproductive health policy theory — the language the academy needed to evaluate my rigor. The second was a language of Guyanese-Caribbean sensibilities, through illustration. For each illustration, I asked: how would Guyanese understand this? Being Guyanese myself, that was easy to draw. The characters are Chinese, Indigenous, African, Indian, and Portuguese Guyanese because they reflect my actual research population. I used Guyanese Creolese because that is how my participants spoke. After conceptualizing each piece, I commissioned artists Christina Izbașa, Timmia Hearn, and Aubrey Lewis to bring them to life.
Researcher’s support from within and outside the region
The exhibition — through visual art, public lectures, and talks — showed how structural factors like gender inequality, gender-based violence, and the legacy of racism and sexism from colonialism sit at the root of maternal mortality. They shape our attitudes, behaviors, complications, how we manage those complications, how we respond to maternal deaths, how we carry fear and trauma around childbearing, and what we invest in for sexual and reproductive healthcare. This was not just a Guyanese finding. Research from Jamaica by Sydnae Taylor and from Trinidad and Tobago by Tammy Kremer, both of whom presented at the exhibition, shared similar patterns. Having them present in conversation allowed the audience to see the regional and historical patterns of violence against women where childbearing is concerned. It also gave us researchers a chance to amplify our voices, and to make the case for more research in the region — and for more researchers in the region to talk to and support each other. One nurse came two days in a row. She said the research from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago kept bringing the illustrations to life — in a bigger way.
Reimagining care by collectively exploring the conditions we are living within
The Redefining Childbearing and Pregnancy-Management Care Exhibition carried sad and difficult stories, but it was not a sad space. It promoted health. It empowered. It brought joyous conversation, short films for reimagining care in our local and regional contexts, and left people feeling affirmed and hopeful. Some people came all three days. Men showed up and participated. Older and younger women showed up and participated. Healthcare workers showed up and participated. A few men told me they want to be on the panel if I host it again — and I will hold them to it! Men showed up for women, and younger men showed up for sisters and mothers, and to learn about male sexual and reproductive health. The conversations each day showed me we can chip away at the conditions that make women believe and live the reality of “pregnancy and childbirth feeling like having one foot in de grave.” I am still receiving voice notes and texts asking how to bring the exhibition to other parts of the country. So, Joy Marcus, thank you for the reminder of ensuring the people get the findings in ways they can move forward. This exhibition did more than share what I had learned. It was truly a community event, made possible by moderators, co-sponsors, and presenters. Special thanks to the Institute of Gender Studies (IGS) for expanding the conversation on reproductive health, policy and development in Guyana.
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