Publication

Early Childhood Community Practitioners’ analyses of new mother’s challenges in Alexandra Township South Africa: a collaboration between academics and practitioners

In this article, Josien de Klerk and others present five web posts that were written by students from Leiden University College in collaboration with Ububele Early Childhood Community Practitioners (ECCP), in Alexandra, a township in South Africa.

Author

Josien de Klerk, Nicola Dawson, Jo-Hsuan Chen, Fiona Marie Reich, Sofie Delansay, Marijne Kunst, Dolça Collado, Thandiwe Khumalo, Lerato Khoza, Senzekile Khumalo, Florence Ramoshaba, Mamikie Rumo and Mariet Matlaila

Date

22 May 2024

Links

Read the full article here

This descriptive paper provides direct insight into the lived experience of mothers from Alexandra Township, through capturing the rich expertise of infant mental health lay practitioners (ECCPs). The web posts provide a rich description of the impact of trauma, harsh living conditions, and maternal mental health struggles for mothers living in Alexandra Township, particularly for foreign nationals. It also shows a more nuanced picture of father involvement in South Africa, otherwise documented as simply ‘absent’. Most importantly the web posts emphasise the important care work of ECCPs.

Collaborations such as this one, between intervention implementers and cross-disciplinary academics, allow for the valuable, rich expertise and perspectives of lay workers to be shared with families, practitioners, researchers, and decision-makers. This in turn has the potential to allow for the improvement of culturally and contextually appropriate infant mental health service provision and the development of the infant mental health field.