Mas Deserve More! Event for International Women’s Day
The Mas Deserve more event will highlight the lack of service provision for mothers with perinatal mental health problems as a gendered women’s right issue rooting from systemic sexism and gender neutral policy making.
This event will explore the societal expectations on mums to be okay even when they are unwell rooting from the prevalence of women’s traditional roles as mums, as parents. We will highlight concerning maternal health inequalities that are consistently demonstrated in the MBRRACE reports each year where women from disadvantaged communities, BME women and social services involvement have concerning mortality outcomes. We will also draw attention to the lack of advocacy support for mums going through childcare proceedings, a complete failure to support extremely vulnerable women.
We will explain the concept of gender budgeting and it’s lack of implementation in Northern Ireland as being a barrier to gender equality and satisfactory maternal mental health resourcing. Maternal mental health is a victim of a culture of gender neutral policy making in Northern Ireland, where perinatal mental health has not been recognized and supported, perpetuating stigma for mums.
We will embrace and acknowledge the Mas project and the community and voluntary sector as an invaluable, lifesaving resource and non- judgmental supportive space that reaches women and supports their development, wellbeing and recovery. The International Women’s Day NI 2026 theme of Strength in Solidarity connects with the spirit of the Mas project where co- regulation, connection, nurturing of self and others brings healing and development. We will hear from women from the Mas project about how maternal mental health peer support has supported their recovery and impacted their lives.
This special International Women’s Day event connects maternal mental health with gendered inequality and celebrates the strength of women, in peer support and in the community and voluntary sector’s unwavering capacity to meet women where they are in their lives, showing solidarity and commitment to mothers.