Sandra Igwe MBE is Founder and CEO of The Motherhood Group, which began with mothers connecting and speaking honestly about experiences that too often remained invisible. It has since supported more than 18,000 mothers through community, counselling, peer support, programmes, advocacy, research, training and partnerships with health services and other institutions.
That same principle sits behind Mumbrite, a new digital maternal wellbeing and community platform. Mumbrite is designed to help mothers discover support, connect with others and feel that they belong. Through live audio conversations, expert-led sessions, culturally responsive wellbeing support, community profiles and events, mothers can enter a space without the pressure of having to perform or explain every part of themselves.
Digital and community provision can be especially valuable for a mother who is isolated, caring for a baby, returning to work, coping with baby loss or birth trauma, or not yet ready to walk into a clinical setting. It can help create a bridge. It must be responsibly governed and linked to appropriate professional pathways, but it should be recognised as part of the wider safety ecosystem rather than treated as peripheral.
In August, Channel 4 and Lloyds named Mumbrite one of four 2026 Black in Business winners. The award includes £200,000 of Channel 4 advertising airtime, a bespoke television campaign produced with Quiet Storm, and six months of marketing support and business mentoring from Lloyds. The advert is due to air in 2027.
This is not a £200,000 cash grant. Its significance is visibility and reach. It will allow a platform created from Black mothers’ lived experience to enter homes across the country and reach women who may never have known that culturally responsive support existed for them. For Black founders and Black communities, it is also a reminder that our ideas, expertise and solutions deserve investment, national visibility and room to grow.
Most importantly, the opportunity can help more mothers find community and support earlier. Visibility alone does not reform a system, but visibility can open a door. What happens after that door opens must be backed by safe pathways, skilled practitioners, sustainable commissioning and meaningful partnership with the communities being served.
Black Maternal Mental Health Week UK 2026 takes place from Monday 21 to Sunday 27 September.
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