Social experiences of breastfeeding: building bridges between research and policy

Increasing rates of breastfeeding is an explicit goal of UK health policy. The inclusion in the Public Health Outcomes Framework of breastfeeding prevalence at 6-8 weeks reflects the ongoing need to monitor sustained breastfeeding, acknowledging that continuation remains a challenge (Public Health England, 2014). To achieve this goal, it is important to understand women's embodied, affective, and day-to-day experiences of trying to breastfeed and how more UK women might be helped to breastfeed for longer. Social and cultural research provides an important adjunct to knowledge about health benefits in crafting breastfeeding policy (UNICEF UK, 2013). However, the focus on public health promotion that underpins the drive to increase initiation and duration rates has meant that the more subtle social and cultural factors that shape day-to-day-experiences of breastfeeding have tended to be overlooked by policymakers. Certain kinds of social science research have had an impact on shaping policy - for example research on the factors underpinning the decision to initiate breastfeeding and ways to support breastfeeding women. However there is also a range of cutting-edge research from across social sciences addressing the nuances and complexity of breastfeeding practice through the lens of feminist and other social theories, and this work is not as well known or had nearly as much impact on policy and practice.

This seminar series will draw together scholars from disciplines including anthropology, sociology, human geography, law, media and communications and midwifery with nationally recognised individuals involved in education, practice, research, policy and NGOs. We will create a space for considering the 'real world' implications of scholarship and for collaborative knowledge-creation. We have secured agreements to participate from 24 people from academia, public health and policy. We have budgeted to support the participation of post-graduates, ECRs, senior scholars (domestic and international) and a range of participants from the public and third sector. The series will address the following themes: breastfeeding and changing cultures of parenting; breastfeeding, wage-work and social exclusion; breastfeeding, affect and materiality; breastfeeding and the politics of embodiment; breastfeeding, the media and popular culture and thinking innovatively about breastfeeding policy.

The series will consist of six seminars spread over two years, with funding for all UK-presenters to attend every session to facilitate the creation of durable networks. The final seminar will start to synthesis the work raised over the previous meetings, and close with a presentation by spoken-word artist Hollie McNish, whose piece on breastfeeding in public in the UK has been viewed over one million times on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiS8q_fifa0).

Presenting findings to, and fostering dialogue with, policy and practitioner communities is at the heart of this proposal, and has been a key driver in its design. Fulfilling these aims is achievable due to the bidding team's extensive networks. As well as bringing together broad-ranging academic networks, our multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team has excellent links to practice as well as those cultivated over time with major third sector players who influence government policy on breastfeeding (UNICEF, the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) and Best Beginnings). These groups, together with a range of key health-care practitioners, form a critical component of the seminar's participant-group and target-audience for dissemination activities. Dissemination will include placing short, policy-facing reports on our website after each seminar, summarising findings for non-academic audiences; engaging in strategic, high-profile conference work; and undertaking periodic meetings with third-sector associates after the end of award to maximise impacts (see Pathways to Impact).

Who will benefit?

This seminar series will benefit government policy makers, non-governmental breastfeeding organisations/charities, academics undertaking breastfeeding research and those at a more 'grassroots' level, working with breastfeeding women and their families, thus ensuring both economic and societal impact.

The aim is to provide a space in which to showcase a range of social science research and facilitate discussion between researchers, policy makers and practitioners to enable the creation of new knowledge. The proposal has been specifically developed to involve non-academic users throughout the seminar series. We have secured support from a range of policy makers and practitioners both nationally and locally and from key charities working in this area. Each seminar in the series will reinforce the focus on the beneficiaries of the research, with each meeting including at least one practitioner or policy-maker on the panel who will present, comment and/or lead discussion, as well as attendees from policy and practice locally and nationally. Invitees will include public health managers (breastfeeding remit) from Local Authorities, breastfeeding peer support co-ordinators, charitable sector workers, lactation consultants, infant feeding co-ordinators and those involved in midwife and health visitor education. People from these groups have been contacted at the development stage of the proposal and we have firm expressions of interest in being involved both as speakers and as attendees.

We anticipate that bringing together academics from the UK and elsewhere will stimulate interest and debate that will benefit attendees beyond the lifetime of the seminar series. At the same time, finding solutions to the challenges inherent in breastfeeding promotion and support cannot be effective without the involvement of practitioners; hence regular contact will be maintained during the planning of each seminar, the seminar event and the dissemination of the research. This will be through a variety of means as outlined in the attached Pathways to Impact.

How will they benefit?

This seminar series aims to both increase the visibility of social science research in relation to breastfeeding and to highlight its relevance and applicability to policy and practice. We anticipate that the attendees identified will benefit through the forging of new links, both cross-disciplinary and between academia and policy/practice (for more detail please see Pathways to Impact). This will potentially identify new, valuable and useful avenues for research as well as emphasising the potential for impact of interdisciplinary breastfeeding research. We anticipate that new research partnerships will also be created.

The publication of collected papers from the seminar series will benefit academics from the range of disciplines represented. It is also anticipated that this collection will be useful in the teaching of student midwives and specialist community public health nurses as well as of interest to those undertaking voluntary breastfeeding support training. The creation of a dedicated seminar series website will ensure that both academic and non-academic users will have the opportunity to access key materials and to contribute to debates and exchange information.

The debate, collaborative thinking and future study that arises from the series will positively impact on work in the UK to increase breastfeeding rates, thus ultimately improving child and maternal health and reducing inequalities. Our aim is to make more visible the range of important work in this area, thus providing additional resources on which to draw when working with women and families. We anticipate that this will be used locally in informing the development of Breastfeeding Strategy work (Local Authorities) as well as more widely in relation to national policy development.