Holding Time at Royal Brompton Hospital
Sunday 15th April - Sunday 14th June
Free admission, 24 hours per day, seven days per week
Exhibition Space, Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney Street, London SW3 6NP
Royal Brompton will be showing Holding Time for two months this spring, with an installation of photographic still portraits, a single screen animation and video recorded interviews with participating mothers. The exhibition will also feature a
specially commissioned piece for the hospital, which includes interviews with Sabrina Byrne and doctors and nurses who support mothers with very seriously ill babies through the process of breastfeeding. The finished piece will be on permanent exhibition in the expressing room in Rose Ward after the exhibition.
This exhibition is produced in conjunction with The-Parlour.org and rb&hArts.
rb&hArts
rb&hArts runs an innovative arts programme at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. It is designed to improve the clinical environment and patient experience, and enhance the well-being of patients, visitors, staff and the local communities surrounding each hospital. The department manages a permanent collection of 1,200 artworks, delivers bespoke visual arts commissions, and runs an innovative participatory arts programme, comprising music on the wards and workshops. they engage over 5,000 people each year, often participating in the arts for the first time.
Support the rb&hArts programme
rb&hArts are supported by a range of trusts, including Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Charity, as well as individual donors. They are always looking for volunteers that can help us fundraise or take part in activities to bring the healing power of the arts to more patients.
Donate to the arts programme
The Parlour
A comprehensive review series on breastfeeding in The Lancet, published on 30 January this year, gave a clear signal of what is needed to be done and pointed at Britain as having “the worst breastfeeding rates in the world”. Even if this is maybe not a fair picture, as rates of starting breastfeeding are relatively high, they do point to a rapid drop-off rate, and most mothers state they stop breastfeeding earlier that they would have wanted to. As others have mentioned, and as this important open letter states, the breastfeeding crisis in the UK is a crisis of lack of support. This crisis comes at a time when the UK is going through a moment of profound cuts to breastfeeding support services. As Dr Nigel Rollins, one of the co-authors of The Lancet reports, puts it clearly: “The success or failure of breastfeeding should not be seen solely as the responsibility of the woman. Her ability to breastfeed is very much shaped by the support and the environment in which she lives. There is a broader responsibility of governments and society to support women through policies and programmes in the community.”
The Parlour was founded on the belief that we need to move away for thinking about breastfeeding solely as a women's individual choice, to thinking about it in terms of a collective responsibility. With this aim in mind, the Parlour aims to creating spaces where breastfeeding women can find cultural, social and emotional support, and thus, to plant seeds for cultural change.
