Using comics workshop to investigate and disseminate the infertility experiences of ethic minority women in Wales

Around 1 in 10 women experience infertility. Research in western countries shows that most women successfully adjust to infertility. However, in developing and pronatalist countries/cultures infertility has high psychological, social and economic costs, e.g. depression, social-stigma or domestic violence.
A significant proportion of the Welsh population is from ethnic minority backgrounds (16% in Cardiff). It can be expected that women from these communities also experience a high infertility burden, but the extent of this problem is unknown because infertility research in western countries has traditionally focused on white middle-class heterosexual patient populations. Research shows that ethnic minorities are keen to be involved but that conducting research with them is challenging due to language and cultural barriers. Traditional methods (focus groups, interviews) have had limited success in overcoming these barriers. The consequences are that the needs of these women are unknown and unmet in fertility healthcare pathways (e.g., European and NICE infertility guidelines, fertility clinics, patient-advocacy groups).
This pilot project will be the first to explore the use of comics drawing workshops as an innovative and cultural-sensitive methodology for investigating and disseminating findings about the infertility experiences of ethic minority women in Wales.
A workshop will use comics to prompt women to reflect and share their experiences of infertility in small groups. The participants will then progress through basic drawing exercises to the creation of simple representations of their experiences in comics format. All conversations will be recorded and both the visual and linguistic data analysed to answer the project research questions (see below).
The main findings will be disseminated in the form of a comics booklet (designed by a comics artist based on the visual and linguistic data) and an exhibition. Due to their visual nature, these formats are expected to be more appealing to a broader audience than scientific publications.