14. Alice Ladur

This is a very special podcast for me - a story I was really keen to capture as it deserves a large audience.

Today I am speaking to Dr Alice Ladur, who has used my Whose Shoes board game in her PhD project in Uganda, working with men to bring about culture change and improve maternal and the enable outcomes.

It is a very powerful story and the immediate changes and outcomes are extraordinary. There is so much scope to build on this project and save lives.

I am delighted that Alice won the  Vice Chancellor's Postgraduate Research Prize, Bournemouth University. Very well deserved!

Lemon lightbulbs with Alice 🍋 💡🍋

• Alice had the vision to target men in Uganda in order to bring about culture change and improve maternity outcomes
• It is vital to ensure that pregnant/ birthing women have choice, so involvement of the partners had to be on their terms
• Careful research and planning essential in adapting the Whose Shoes approach for a new audience 
•   It was vital to run the pilot study to ensure that the Whose Shoes game was acceptable and accessible to Ugandan men.
• Make sure the messaging is appropriate and translate into the local language
• Experiencing what it is like as a participant helps in designing and facilitating a Whose Shoes session
• It is useful to record ‘before and after’ impressions, to help evidence the impact of the approach. Quotes are brilliant!
• By building trust, the men talked about their experiences in childbirth and realised the impact of their attitude and behaviour on their spouses. They became more concerned and caring
• Essential to understand the reality of working in a difficult political context; overcoming the political divide through coproduction
• “Maternal death knows no colour divide and has no political affiliation”
• In Uganda, it was in is essential to engage a male facilitator. 
• Choosing the right male facilitator added so much- a father himself, who succeeded in breaking down stereotypes and getting the men to share experiences openly and learn from each other
• Humour helps to break down barriers! Complete strangers bonding over a board game!
• Essential to identify and dispel the misconceptions men had about maternity services. Allaying the fears!
• Better nutrition! Increasing the uptake of leafy vegetables and animal products
• Seeing real behavioural change. More understanding, more caring!
• The women felt more supported to attend antenatal care
• The board game – wise, educational and fun!
• This was highly innovative. Board games have not been used in this way in Uganda before.
• Coproduction rather than competition.
• Whose Shoes is creating safe spaces for people to reflect and share experiences and think through individual and community actions
• An article in the BMC about Whose Shoes as an educational board game to engage Ugandan men in pregnancy and childbirth
• We have only really scratched the surface here. Who can help with funding for a longer term study?

Read the early research findings here:

`Whose Shoes?` Can an educational board game engage Ugandan men in pregnancy and childbirth? | BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth | Full Text