09/06/2026
Read our collaborative poem ‘My voice found strength when…’
As part of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, and the theme ‘A Decade of Voices’, we invited our community to contribute to a collaborative poem using the sentence starter ‘My voice found strength when…’ The poem can be read in full below.
My voice found strength when I found someone who really wanted to listen.
My voice found strength when I found a community who helped me find the words.
My voice found strength when I set my thoughts free from my own mind and shared them with others.
My voice found strength when I met others who had been through it, and understood.
My voice found strength when I realised I wasn’t alone.
My voice found strength when I heard the voices of others.
My voice found strength when I learned I wasn't alone - when the echoes answered back, and I heard my story living in someone else's words.
My voice found strength when I was being advocated for…
My voice found strength when I realised I was no longer paranoid!
My voice found strength when after 2 months of separation from my baby, I was finally told ‘you will get well’ - a glimmer of hope held out to me in Melbury Lodge.
My voice found strength when I stopped questioning my own that was already there, within.
My voice found strength when I went public on television, radio, face-to-face, and print, discussing my lived experience with maternal mental health.
My voice found strength when I realised I wasn’t the only one.
My voice found strength when I followed the voice of my Shepherd.
My voice found strength when I knew there was hope.
My voice found strength when I realised I was not alone in what I went through and that it was not my fault that I got ill.
My voice found strength when I let go of shame.
My voice found strength when I allowed for quiet pauses.
My voice found strength when I realised I wasn’t alone and that what happened was not abnormal.
My voice found strength when I finally understood that what had happened to me wasn’t my fault.
My voice found strength when I crawled out of the clouds of doom and started looking for the stars.
My voice found strength when I rested in solidarity and accepted none of this was mine or anyone’s fault.
My voice found strength when I found courage to share my story with others.
My voice found strength when I started to use it to let other mothers struggling know there will be brighter days again.
My voice found strength when I could stop blaming myself and start using my experience to help others.
“Try to leave the painful memories behind and look forward to your future life!”
My voice found strength when we shared our most vulnerable moments and in solidarity we realised we’ve been to hell and back and here now we sit smiling wide with open hearts, tender to support each other.
My voice found strength when someone thanked me for healing loudly, so we don’t lose others in the silence.
My voice found strength when I realised I had made it through.
My voice found strength when I dared to let myself be loved again.
My voice found strength when I could choose self love over fear.
My voice found strength when I felt seen and heard as a woman and as a Mother.
My voice found strength when I started to believe I was a good Mama.
My voice found strength when you showed me I was your mother.
