This photo essay shows the mothers and children of Bangladesh, where extreme poverty reigns but maternal health has improved in recent years.
Your Voices
We asked artists, writers, photographers, and filmmakers around the world to submit their creative work about various issues related to motherhood. The result is this curated selection of pieces, Your Voices! Explore moving work that showcases the feelings, perspectives, and experiences of motherhood from all over the globe! Six outstanding pieces have been selected by a prestigious international jury as finalists for IMOW's Community Choice Award.
Featured Voices
 Chantal Anderson Bangladesh / USA |
 Jorge Caballero | Gusano Films Colombia A woman in Colombia gives birth in this short film, which also illuminates the problems related to limited medical resources for women. |
 Kelly McIlvenny Nepal / Australia This photo essay depicts pregnant women in Nepal and introduces us to the men and women who guide mothers through a healthy delivery. |
 Renee Hoffman USA As a way to process and release the pain and anger around her traumatic labor and delivery, Renee Hoffman created this Cesarean Quilt. |
 Sarah Henderson Ethiopia / USA Sarah Henderson tells the story of an Ethiopian woman who suffered from fistula and who received care at Hamlin Fistula Hospital. |
 Sasja van Vechgel Tanzania / Netherlands Sasja van Vechgel, alongside the Foxes NGO, photographed mothers, children, and families affected by the HIV/AIDS endemic in Tanzania. |
Your Voices
 MissRepresentation USA For Father's Day in the United Stated, MissRepresentation.org asked women and girls why their dad inspires them. Hear what they have to say in this emotional tribute to great fathers everywhere! |
 Alexia Nye Jackson USA This short film illuminates the economic value of mothers’ work and the need for policies in the U.S. to effect life/work balance for mothers. |
 Andre Lambertson | Kwame Dawes Haiti / USA /Jamaica This visual poem celebrates the strength that many Haitian mothers have displayed in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake. |
 Barbara Crooker USA This trio of poems that explore the cyclical nature of motherhood as the poet looks back at her experience as a daughter, mother, and grandmother. |
 Catherine Haley Epstein USA Catherine Haley Epstein’s paintings touch on the many ways women’s identities shift and change when they become mothers. |
 Cheryl Hanna-Truscott USA This photo series looks at a unique option offered by Washington State, USA to imprisoned mothers and their children. |
 Clare Yow Canada In her series of stark, simple images of women breastfeeding their children, Clare Yow invites us to rethink public breastfeeding. |
 Gail Silvan USA A working mother expresses the indignity of being forced to pump breastmilk on the floor of the public bathroom while on the job. |
 Humaira Abid Pakistan Humaira Abid depicts the pain and disappointment that comes along with miscarriage in her intricate wooden sculptures.
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 Kathy Halper USA Kathy Halper's tongue-in-cheek, Facebook-inspired embroideries explore how technology affects the modern mother/child relationship. |
 Kate Wilhelm Canada Kate Wilhelm uses roller derby to examine how real women contradict traditional gender codes in their identities as women and mothers. |
 Kottavei USA V. Kottavei Williams’ work uses recycled records, boxes, paint, and other materials to depict mothers as powerful, vibrant, and engaged. |
 Lenelle Moïse Haiti / United States Lenelle Moise's poem leads us though a queer woman's thoughts and internal inquiet about the process of having a child. |
 Margaret Lazarus USA Margaret Lazarus’ film “BirthMarkings” explores our post birth bodies—and how our self-image—change after giving birth. |
 Maria Adela Diaz Guatemala / USA Maria Adela Diaz’s video performance demonstrates the mother-child bond and the need for “Detachment” in order for both to grow as individuals. |
 Margaret O’Brien USA Margaret O'Brien offers this song as a tribute to her aunts and the maternal role they played in her life while her own mother was ill.
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 Meredith May Nepal / USA Meredith May tells the story of Anita, a Nepalese girl who was sold as a domestic servant for $75. Nine years later, Anita sought justice. |
 Esther Solonka Kenya Esther, once part of the Maasai tribe in Kenya, shares how one woman empowered her to become an activist and better mother. |
 Migrantas Germany / Argentina The organization, Migrantas, gives migrant women and mothers a platform to express their experiences as women in a foreign land. |
 Miriam Schaer USA Artist Miriam Schaer embroidered toddler dresses with quotes that depict the prejudice and hostility women without children face. |
 Mutamassik Egypt / Italy Musician and Producer Mutamassik dedicates a song to her grandmother, who was forced to give up her dream of becoming a doctor. |
 Pattabi Raman India Pattabi Raman’s photo series portrays of women in rural India who fulfill the dual roles of mother and financial breadwinner for their family.
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 Paula Obè Trinidad and Tobago Paula Obè's song/poem celebrates her mother and grandmother as well as our women ancestors who paved the path for women's equality.
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 Rachael Ouko Kenya This documentary short from Rachael Ouko interviews teen moms living in the Mathare Slums of Nairobi, Kenya, where teen motherhood is common.
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 Sarah Buttenwieser USA In this essay, Sarah Buttenweiser explores what the name “mother” means as an adoptive mother in an open adoption.
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 Tecee Boley Liberia Tecee Boley's podcast reports the toll unsafe abortions takes on women in Liberia—a country where elective abortions remain illegal. |
 Tracei Willis USA Tracei Willis’ poem offers a vivid glimpse of growing up in the American South and pays tribute to the women in her life. |
 Wanda Torres Puerto Rico / France Wanda Torres’ art reflects her conflicting emotions around having children and the reality of her ticking biological clock. |
 Zsuzsanna Geller-Varga Hungary This documentary follows a family in Hungary where the father stays home as caretaker and the mother is the primary breadwinner. |
