Glasgow-based charity scoops major national award

Amma Birth Companions was chosen as one of 10 winners of the 2024 GSK IMPACT Awards having been selected from over 500 UK charities.

The charity was recognised for its work to improve the health, wellbeing, and birthing experiences of pregnant women from vulnerable backgrounds, including refugees and asylum seekers.

The organisation impressed judges by its impact that it has achieved in a small time by identifying a gap in suitable birthing support for vulnerable women.

CEO of Amma Birth Companions, Maree Aldam, said: “It’s been a really rigorous, quite challenging, judging process that we’ve been through so to be recognised along with the other winners of the impact award is really special for us.”

As one of the 10 award winners, Amma Birth Companions will receive £40,000 in unrestricted funding. Maree Aldam added: “The funding is just so very welcome. Us, at Amma, like so many other charities, are finding the fundraising landscape increasingly difficult with the cost of living crisis and the various other challenges that we are seeing at the moment.

“So this funding is extremely welcome. It will go a long way towards helping us to run the main services that we run. One of the main things that we do is to offer companionship during pregnancy, birth and postnatal period. So we train cohorts of volunteers to deliver that kind of support to clients.

“We also have our own perinatal team so we have got a team of four who support the clients directly.”

The charity was formed in 2019 and since then has provided care, information and support to many women and birthing people who have faced, or are facing, vulnerable circumstances.

The care, information and support that they receive means that they do not face poor birth outcomes and do not have to face childbirth alone.

A lot of the people that the charity supports are seeking asylum or have insecure immigration status. Research shows that maternal mortality rates amongst women from Black or Asian ethnic backgrounds are significantly higher than they are for white women.

Ms Aldam said: “Many of the clients are in the asylum process or have refugee status, or other insecure immigration status.

“We are regularly blown away by the resilience of people who have challenging situations that they have faced, many having had experiences of trauma.

“I think having the support of an organisation such as ours and being able to believe in people and to get the kind of support that they need, in what is one of the most challenging periods that they will go through in their life, is really important.”

The award is just recognition for the fantastic work that Amma Birth Companions does in supporting vulnerable women in Glasgow and shaping government policy.

It will allow the charity to continue its vital work and grow to help more vulnerable people in society.