Drawing towards the final few days of my placement, I’ve had time to reflect on all I’ve learnt and experienced. Through being a Research Assistant for the “Birthing Stories” project I’ve been able to engage with a variety of tasks, that not only have developed my skill set, but also has allowed me to grow in confidence. Often, I am prone to anxieties that I’m not completing work properly, that I must check in with whoever set the task, that I’m doing it correctly. However, through this remote placement I feel I’ve grown in autonomy and am more able to trust my own instinct.
Working with the museum through such an unprecedented time has given me the assurance that I am able to work mostly based off my own intuition when it comes to making certain decisions.
Though, I wouldn’t enjoyed my time nearly as much, if I wasn’t working with such an encouraging and friendly team. I must say a big thank you to Louise Price, the Museum Curator, for guiding me through the placement and giving me a wide variety of opportunities to fulfil what I wanted to achieve by working with the Museum; to Nadia Stone, the creator of Storypinned, for envisioning such a project, where real women can share their own pieces of history through her organisation, and also to Molly Schoenfeld, a fellow student working on placement too, for sharing her fascinating work on oral histories with me and helping me improve my own. Though it would have been lovely to meet them all in person at the Museum, plus all the other people working there, working remotely has taught me many other skills I may not have had the opportunity to develop otherwise. Using online software, virtual meetings, blogging through Squarespace - things I may not have done a great deal of if I was to work at the Museum in person.
I initially wanted to work in community engagement. This involved me contacting various organisations to see if any women of their community wanted to share their childbirth stories. Through this I’ve been able to develop my ability to communicate effectively and formally, to represent the point of contact between the project convener and those interested in participating. I’ve been able to understand further why community engagement is so important as well, creating a blog post on the subject. In a similar vein, I was able to connect with the community involved with the Museum through social media, something I really enjoyed and felt was a new venture for me. It was rewarding to see people enjoying, interacting and reminiscing over what I tweeted or posted on Facebook.
Not only has my skill set grown, but also my knowledge of the different cultural and religious traditions surrounding birth. It’s a topic I’d previously not thought about in great detail, but through my research I’ve been able to educate myself further. Moreover, I’d never made links between childbirth and the ‘Me Too’ movement, though now I realise just how important it is to highlight this link. I feel this project is of great value in highlighting how personal childbirth is, yet can be made impersonal and medicalised to the point of a mother losing her own autonomy.
Thus far, I have gotten a few replies of interest from women wanting to share their own stories for the project, with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Hopefully, the project can secure funding in October as I feel it would be an amazing way to empower women and celebrate their own, unique stories. However, even if this isn’t the case, I am exceedingly grateful to have had this opportunity to work with the George Marshall Museum. I have been able to grow not only professionally, but also personally.