Research has provided much evidence for the unequivocal benefits of breastfeeding for infants and mothers, prompting government initiatives and advice that supports and encourages breastfeeding uptake and longevity. Examples of physiological health benefits for the infant include reduced risk of asthma, obesity, type 1 diabetes, severe lower respiratory disease, acute otitis media (ear infections), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and gastrointestinal infections (National Health Service, 2023). Physiological benefits for the mother include lowering the risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer and breast cancer (Ibid, 2023).
Psychological benefits for mothers have also been found, where breastfeeding can protect against postnatal depression (Brown & Rance, 2015). Breastfeeding also affords an intimate tactile connection between the mother and child. The positive consequences and health benefits of interpersonal touch are well established (e.g., Field, 2014) as well as its importance for communicating affect in close relationships such as caregiver-child (Bowlby, 1969; Goodwin & Cekaite, 2018; Hertenstein, 2002; Montagu, 1971).
As a research group, we are interested in the lived experiences of breastfeeding interactions, and how these are initiated, maintained and supported in everyday life. To this end, we are collecting video recordings of everyday breastfeeding episodes from around the world. To date, this includes video footage from Finland, Sweden and The Netherlands, where we are in the process of recruiting more group members from Australia and the UK.
Project Team
- Professor Amanda Bateman, BCU
- Dr Julia Katila, Tampere University, Finland
- Dr Emily Hofstetter, Linköping University, Sweden
- Associate Professor Jana Declercq, University of Antwerp, Ghent
Project Impacts
In its early stages, the research group has drawn conclusions from breastfeeding interactions in a Finnish clinical setting, where spontaneous breastfeeding interactions were either supported by present clinicians, or not. These early findings reveal breastfeeding interactions as complex and as co-constructed by infant and mother, rather than viewing the infant as a passive recipient of the breast. Through the use of an ethnomethodological framing and multimodal conversation analysis approach, the contributions of the infant are clearly visible and mark them out as competent and capable collaborators in the breastfeeding interaction. The role of present others was also explored, where – in clinical encounters - spontaneous breastfeeding activities in the presence of nurses can offer rich opportunities for nurses to observe closely how the mother-infant are managing, and alert to possible health problems early on.
Bateman, A. & Katila, J. and Hofstetter, E. (2024). Exploring nurse responses to spontaneous breastfeeding episodes during routine infant health checks in Finland: A conversation analytic approach.
Contact
For more information on this research project, please contact Amanda.bateman@bcu.ac.uk.