The hydrostatic test was extraordinarily inaccurate. There are multiple circumstances in which a baby's lungs can be inflated during birth. Decomposition can also lead to lungs floating: the test is useless if the body is not found immediately. 
Doctors knew that the test was inaccurate as early as the 1780s, but it was still regularly cited at inquests as late as the 1880s. The people at the mercy of this inaccurate test were usually young, terrified, unmarried women who had given birth in secret. These women could not usually afford legal counsel, and were not permitted to speak at the inquest of their dead baby. These women were powerless in the face of medical and legal testimony.

For me, the test represents the imbalance of power at the coroner’s court.

This cake depicts a blood-spattered bucket, with two small lungs floating in it. One is cut into pieces, and one is whole. 

The cake is lemon flavoured, with lemon buttercream and a bit of red food colouring. The lungs are made of pink sugarpaste. Despite appearances, it tasted amazing. 

Sophie Michell, History, FASS.

Anxiety is the most common mental health difficulty experienced in the year following childbirth (i.e., the postpartum period), affecting approximately 20% of birthing people¹, yet it receives little attention. As a result, symptoms are often overlooked and left unsupported, risking significant consequences for mother and child. 

My research investigates the risk factors, triggers, and trajectories of postpartum anxiety experienced by women (and birthing people) in the UK in order to identify opportunities to better support families. The project is split into three stages: a rapid systematic review, a single-point-in-time mixed methods online survey, and a longitudinal online survey. 

This year’s #BakeYourResearch is based on the longitudinal component which explores the interactions between maternal cognitions, mother-infant relations, and postpartum anxiety. Replicating last year’s bake, the fruit cake contains ingredients to represent the underlying socio-demographic, interpersonal, psychiatric, health, and cognitive risk factors associated with postpartum anxiety. The cake is decorated to illustrate the course of the longitudinal study from late pregnancy to twelve-months postpartum and highlight symptoms of anxiety experienced at this time (revealed in my work outside of this project²). The study will examine potential mediating and moderating factors associated with postpartum anxiety, including repetitive negative thinking and social support, as well as normative mothering experiences associated with positive or negative changes in emotional wellbeing. Findings will identify opportunities for future interventions to reduce the prevalence, severity, and long-term implications of anxiety symptoms on mother and infant wellbeing.

¹ During the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, we found the prevalence of clinically concerning postpartum anxiety symptoms increased to approximately 49% in the UK (Harrison et al., 2021, available at https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2021.1886260).

²Jones et al., under review (preprint available at https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-828145/v1)

Apologies for the blurry video, Padlet limited the quality of the upload.

My cakes are vegan toffee apple muffins. I chose apple as the main flavour of my cakes because they are currently in season and apples are a food that often go to waste. Love Food Hate Waste estimated up to 800,000 are thrown away PER DAY in the UK. Seems a waste when people can just make yummy apple muffins instead! 

More detail on the cakes in the comments..

 

The gingerbread hospital is named for Jennie Lee, who was instrumental in the foundation of the Open University and indeed laid the foundation stone on site, was married to Aneurin Bevan, the father of the NHS as Government Minister for health in 1946. This serendipitous link between the Open University and the NHS has never been lost on me as both a midwife, OU student and resident of MK, therefore the naming of the gingerbread hospital seemed most appropriate.  

My literature review has demonstrated a huge gap in knowledge around understanding the social processes around atypical choice in childbirth, particularly when those choices are challenging to society, the family, and the Institution. As my data collection progresses, how women and birthing people navigate the system is nuanced and complex, but above all remains challenging and not without degrees of resistance from the medical community. COVID, rather than creating these challenges, has thrown them into stark relief, exposing both intentional and unintentional barriers to effective safe care for cohorts who make non-normative decisions. The social processes and interactions behind and around these decisions remains largely unexplored. The scene represented here is a woman who having chosen a particular pathway for childbirth, has found herself outside of the system with healthcare professionals on the periphery.

Dean, C. O'Hara, M.. (2015). Ginger is ineffective for hyperemesis gravidarum, and causes harm: an internet based survey of sufferers. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest. 25 (4), 449-455

Looking closely at the cake shows structure of the soil particles, worms, roots, gravel and the colour change from light brown clay lower horizons through to the more humic upper levels. The surface is mainly green at this time of year after hay crop, there may be a few late flowers while the area is grazed before winter floods. 

More and more families are choosing home education. I'm researching how students experience the transition from home education to higher education.  The Open University is popular with home educated students. 

Thank you