Sumayya Mulla

Community member of Public Involvement (PPI) Task Group

Biography

Sumayya has been a community member of the public involvement (PPI) Task Group since 2022 and taking part in the Listening Series. She has five young children and is Founder and Project Coordinator for HappyMOMents, a local network of peer-to-peer support for mothers and children in North Kirklees, West Yorkshire. The group provides social and educational classes for women and children, working in partnership with, and signposting to, other organisations such as the Maternity Voices Partnership, Community Hubs, midwives, health visitors and local schools and nurseries when needed.

Sumayya is particularly passionate about improving maternity experiences for women and families from seldom heard groups from local Black, Asian, minority ethnic, refugee or migrant communities and has supported research to recruit women from these communities, as well as contributing to maternity research herself as a Coinvestigator. She is also a secondary school Mathematics teacher, GCSE examiner, qualified Optometrist and an avid listener of mystery podcasts.

Publications

MacLellan J, Ade M, Fitzsimons B, Kenyon S, Mulla S, Pope C, Sanders J, Rowe R. Women's experiences of intermittent auscultation fetal monitoring in labour: A qualitative study. Women and Birth. 2024;37(6):101805.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871519224002658

Bevan C, Alderdice F, Darby S, Gilzean-Hughes S, McLeish J, Mulla S, Plachcinski R, Wilkinson S, Williams H, Rowe R. 'The Listening Series': increasing equity, diversity and inclusion in patient and public involvement and engagement for policy research by listening to and learning from under-represented groups. Res Involv Engagem. 2024;10(1):71.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38965636