Respite care in NI, Pregnancy loss language, Sex workers and banking

Woman's Hour

BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight has spoken to mothers who are struggling to cope with sons whose complex needs can lead to aggressive outbursts – often leaving themselves and other family members injured. The NHS used to supply respite care that would give those families a break of one or two nights per month. But that care has been evaporating in Northern Ireland due to a number of factors – including the loss of facilities and an increasing number of children who have gone into full-time care. Spotlight presenter Tara Mills and Julie Tipping, one of the mums featured in the documentary join Kylie Pentelow.

Women working in the adult entertainment industry are being put at risk by banks not allowing them to open accounts or denying them financial services. That’s what industry representatives are saying, and why the Financial Conduct Authority recently issued new guidelines for banks around allowing sex workers to access their services. To find out more we hear from Clio Wood, a women’s health advocate and co-founder of CensHERship, Jessica Van Meir, co-founder of MintStars and Cindy Gallop, founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn.

The language used by healthcare professionals to describe pregnancy loss exacerbates the grief and trauma experienced by some individuals. Words such as incompetent cervix, products of conception, and empty sac to name but a few. That’s according to a study published this month by University College London. We hear from Dr Beth Malory, Lecturer in English Linguistics at UCL who led the study.

Romalyn Ante is a Filipino-British poet who also works as a nurse in the NHS. She has just released her second poetry collection, Agimat, which looks at how we keep safe that which we hold most dear. Romalyn talks about what the new collection means to her and why she wanted to combine Filipino mythology and tradition with her own experiences of fighting against Covid.

Presenter: Kylie Pentelow Producer: Kirsty Starkey