Queen's University Belfast - In Her Own Time

Alexandra is fifteen when she becomes pregnant to her boyfriend. She loses her friends and her community when her church kicks her out. Alexandra has to balanced GCSES, pregnancy, labour and motherhood whilst losing her sense of self in a relationship that crushed her confidence and her happiness.

Méabh is seventeen when she discovers she is pregnant and asked to leave her school. After a deeply traumatic experience of labour and birth she and her baby move in with her boyfriend. In the years that follow Méabh navigates a life of teenage domestic violence and societal shame as a young, unmarried mother.

Grace discovers she is pregnant to a man who doesn’t care. She is refused an illegal abortion and must instead navigate life as an unmarried pregnant woman in 1980s Northern Ireland. Grace spends her entire pregnancy wondering whether she will be allowed to keep her baby in a family and a community which views her pregnancy as a shameful secret. Episode 2 of In Her Own Time is Grace’s Story.

Elizabeth was sixteen when she discovered she was pregnant to an older married man. Her parents and her community sent her away to a Mother and Baby home to remain hidden until she gave birth. After a difficult pregnancy and labor, Elizabeth is faced with the reality of being pregnant and unmarried in 1970s Northern Ireland. Episode 1 of In Her Own Time is Elizabeth’s Story.