In the first of our creative workshops of the project, 10 adolescent mothers joined us to share their histories and experiences of teen pregnancy and motherhood. We first completed a drawing task together, in which the mothers drew self-representations of their lives before, during and after their pregnancies. Secondly, working in pairs, we completed a body mapping activity together, in which the mums explored their experiences and emotions in their journey towards motherhood. Finally, we finished the session with individual interviews. 

We were extremely grateful to the ten mothers who participated in this creative knowledge co-production session, for their eloquence, sincerity, and enthusiasm in participating in the different tasks; we look forward to sharing their work shortly!   

In the first of our symposia, we brought together academics and frontline professionals, who work with adolescent mothers or on the topic of teenage pregnancy in Cuernavaca and the state of Morelos. We first heard presentations from Dr Catherine Menkes and Dr Itzel Sosa Sanchez from CRIM-UNAM regarding the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Mexico, shared some preliminary findings from our creative workshop in Cuernavaca, and then opened the floor for a semi-structured roundtable in which professionals from a variety of different sectors, including higher education, social work, and healthcare. We were glad to have representatives attending from various government agencies including IMPAJOVEN, IMMS, ISSSTE, and INSP. We felt very privileged to have heard from so many frontline professionals and were very thankful for their openness and eagerness to discuss the existing barriers to teen pregnancy prevention, as well as obstacles for supporting already existing adolescent mothers in the state of Morelos and beyond.

In the first of our symposia in Cuba, thanks to the hard work and collaboration of our research partner Dr Diurkis Madrugal, we brought together local professionals from the Cauto Cristo area, Bayamo province, in Cuba, who work on the front line with adolescent mothers. This included social workers, healthcare professionals, educators, and local representatives of Cuban government organisations. We were exceptionally grateful to hear from these professionals who work intimately with the local community and shared with us their invaluable knowledge and experience about the realities of young parents and adolescents in South East Cuba today.

In the second of our creative workshops with adolescent mothers, we brought together 8 young mums from the Cauto Cristo area to share their histories and experiences of teen pregnancy and motherhood. Replicating the methodology from our Mexican workshops, we completed a drawing task together, before moving on to our body mapping activity. Finally, we finished the session with individual interviews so that the mothers could explain their body maps to us and were able to speak more about their experiences of motherhood in detail. 

As always, we were extremely grateful to the eight mothers who joined us for this creative knowledge co-production session, for their generosity and time  in participating in the different tasks; especially in the heat of the summer and during multiple power cuts! We felt very privileged to hear their stories.   

In the second of our symposia in Cuba, again thanks to the amazing organisation of our research partner Dr Diurkis Madrugal, we brought together local professionals from Bayamo, Cuba, mainly from government organisations that work on policy relating to teenage pregnancy, as well as frontline educators and campaigners. As always, we were very grateful to hear from these professionals who were embedded in the local community and shared with us their invaluable knowledge and experience of policy and how it relates to the realities of young parents and adolescents in the area.

In the third and final of our creative workshops with adolescent mothers, we were happy to bring together 8 young mums from to share their histories and experiences of teen pregnancy and motherhood. Thanks to the essential collaboration of the Colombian organisation Profamilia, we were able to host adolescent mothers from six different regions of Colombia, for the first time giving us a cross-cultural perspective on adolescent pregnnacy from within a country itself, making the session extremely rich. As with our sessions in Mexico and Cuba, we followed our three-step methodology of drawing tasks, body-mapping, and individual interviews. In our Colombian session, we were also had the time for a short but invaluable feedback discussion with the participants in which they were able to share their experiences of the methodology itself.

Yet again, we were extremely grateful to the eight mothers who joined us for this creative knowledge co-production session, for their openness to share their experiences, from the joyful and painful, and for putting their trust in us as researchers. We were also so grateful for the support and collaboration from Profamilia, without which this workshop would not have been possible.