Photographer Clare Hughes writes about her photo series called ‘The Hidden Mothers’. Find more of Clare’s work at her website or Instagram.
Over the past two years I have been working on The Hidden Mothers, a participatory project with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) sufferers using a visual metaphor based on archival research. The photographed creative act helps distance the participant from their experience providing a powerful cathartic perspective and community.
I am a participatory-based photographer challenging the traditional social documentary approach to photography. Using overlooked historical collections, I communicate difficult subject matter in a new socially-engaged way.
The Hidden Mothers has been supported by The Foundling Museum, and exhibited at the Houses of Parliament with backing from MPs. Leading obstetricians at King’s College London are supporting a solo exhibition at The Science Gallery in 2025. Works from the project have been acquired by the Birth Rites collection, the first and only collection of contemporary artwork dedicated to the subject of childbirth.
When the joy of a confirmed pregnancy is coupled with the traumatic experience of HG, one’s present and future life are thrust into a state of conflict.
As a mother, your own health is secondary to your baby’s. As a patient, your illness is hidden by a century of misdiagnosis. As a parent, your choices are robbed by the prospect of repeated trauma. Personal, medical and social implications compete for priority, all at odds with one another. Your body becomes a place of conflict and your very purpose becomes conflicted.
HG is not regular pregnancy sickness as we know it. It is a condition with extreme symptoms and effects, such as prolonged periods of nausea and vomiting, lack of appetite leading to severe and rapid weight loss as well as dehydration. Medical attention is often required. The psychological impact can be traumatic, preventing future pregnancy, or in some instances leading to unwanted terminations, suicidal thoughts and death. In the UK, approximately 30,000 pregnancies per year suffer from HG.
After suffering from HG throughout my first pregnancy, I was deeply affected by the trauma that came with the illness as well as the lack of medical understanding around it. Further research revealed to me that this is common and even acknowledged by the medical establishment. As a means to reconcile my experience I found a symmetry in the visual metaphor of Victorian ‘hidden mother’ photography. This seemed to perfectly capture the feeling HG sufferers routinely report – that we have been ignored as individuals through our ordeal and that the medical establishment has knowingly ignored the condition for decades.
Pregnancy is often portrayed as a magical time of promise and optimism. For HG sufferers this is longed-for but never a reality. The very idea of pregnancy raises a sense of crisis and anxiety.
The Hidden Mothers captures both the concealed mother as the irrelevant patient, and the revealed woman as the defiant survivor. As first-hand testimony, The Hidden Mothers has been supported by leading obstetricians in advancing treatment, key charities and Members of Parliament.
I couldn’t believe the response to my call out for women to take part in The Hidden Mothers. I had women of all ages from all over the world sending their stories just needing to be heard. The suffering women are going through at the most important part of our lives is horrendous. I was all too aware that it wasn’t possible to tell every story as important as they all are. So I set up @thehiddenmothers Instagram community so that we could share our stories and women could take their own Hidden Mothers selfie too.
The four day photoshoot took place at the very poignant Foundling Museum, London. The Museum tells the story of the UK’s first children’s charity and its first public art gallery – the outcome of a centuries-old project designed to care for and educate London’s most vulnerable children. And whose very own patron Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales suffered with HG herself throughout her pregnancies. I photographed 21 women in total, concealed under fabric to look like a piece of furniture and revealed so that their identity is seen and can’t be ignored.
I was truly honoured to share the sitters’ stories. It was humbling to hear how far some women traveled to take part. It showed how important this was to bravely share their experience through their involvement.
The Hidden Mothers book was displayed alongside selected prints from the project for the first time at the Houses of Parliament in collaboration with Pregnancy Sickness Support. MP Sara Britcliffe and Minister for Women’s Health Strategy Maria Caulfield MP, spoke at the event Unveiling The Hidden Mothers: Empowering Change for Hyperemesis Sufferers.
The event held a spotlight on “The Hidden Mothers, a poignant and revealing initiative that showcases the real and often unseen struggles of women battling [HG]. Through powerful photographs and narratives, the project illuminates the emotional and physical toll of this condition, challenging the prevailing dismissal and ignorance surrounding it.
Our goal is to transform perception into empathy and ignorance into action, thereby improving the support and treatment for those affected. We hope you will join us in this important conversation and be part of a movement that shapes a more empathetic and informed approach to women’s health… This is a chance to gain first-hand insight into the challenges these women face, an understanding crucial for informed policymaking and advocacy.”
Maria Caulfield’s speech affirmed that “We are absolutely determined…to make progress” with HG specifically being put on the women’s health strategy. “This shows that Government is taking this extremely seriously and we want to work hand-in-glove with you to better identify women who are affected and then help get through pregnancy”.
The Hidden Mothers first full public exhibition will be taking place at The Science Gallery London in April 2025 with key stakeholders and politicians in attendance. The Hidden Mothers book will be pursuing funding for production so it can be sent to all the maternity managers across the UK. This will visually communicate the real impact of HG for sufferers to help raise awareness and signposting.
