Social experiences of breastfeeding: building bridges between research and policy

提高母乳喂养率是英国卫生政策的明确目标。将6-8周母乳喂养流行率纳入公共卫生结果框架反映了持续监测母乳喂养的持续需要，承认持续母乳喂养仍然是一项挑战(英国公共卫生，2014年)。为了实现这一目标，重要的是要了解女性尝试母乳喂养的具体、情感和日常经历，以及如何帮助更多的英国女性获得更长时间的母乳喂养。社会和文化研究为制定母乳喂养政策的健康益处知识提供了重要的补充(联合国儿童基金会英国，2013年)。然而，对公共健康促进的关注是推动提高母乳喂养启动率和持续率的基础，这意味着影响母乳喂养日常体验的更微妙的社会和文化因素往往被政策制定者忽视。某些类型的社会科学研究对制定政策产生了影响--例如，关于决定启动母乳喂养的因素和支持母乳喂养妇女的方法的研究。然而，也有来自社会科学的一系列尖端研究，通过女权主义和其他社会理论的视角处理母乳喂养实践的细微差别和复杂性，而这项工作没有那么广为人知，对政策和实践也没有那么大的影响。这一系列研讨会将汇集来自人类学、社会学、人文地理学、法学、媒体和传播学、助产学等学科的学者，以及涉及教育、实践、研究、政策和非政府组织的国家公认的个人。我们将创造一个空间，用来考虑学术和协作知识创造的“现实世界”影响。我们已经获得了来自学术界、公共卫生和政策界的24人的参与协议。我们的预算用于支持研究生、ECR、(国内和国际)资深学者以及来自公共部门和第三部门的一系列参与者的参与。该系列将讨论以下主题：母乳喂养和不断变化的育儿文化；母乳喂养、工资工作和社会排斥；母乳喂养、影响和实质性；母乳喂养和化身政治；母乳喂养、媒体和流行文化以及对母乳喂养政策的创新思考。该系列将包括六个研讨会，为期两年，资助所有英国演讲者参加每一次会议，以促进建立持久的网络。最后的研讨会将开始综合前几次会议上提出的工作，并以口语艺术家霍莉·麦克尼什的演讲结束，他关于英国公共场合母乳喂养的文章在Youtube(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiS8q_fifa0).)上的浏览量已超过100万次向政策和从业者社区介绍调查结果并促进与他们的对话是这项提议的核心，也是其设计的关键驱动因素。由于竞标团队的广泛网络，实现这些目标是可以实现的。除了汇聚广泛的学术网络，我们的多学科、多机构团队与实践以及与影响政府母乳喂养政策的主要第三部门参与者(联合国儿童基金会、国家分娩信托基金(NCT)和最佳开端)之间有着良好的联系。这些群体与一系列关键的保健从业人员一起，构成了研讨会传播活动的参与者群体和目标受众的重要组成部分。传播将包括在每次研讨会后在我们的网站上发布简短的、面向政策的报告，为非学术受众总结调查结果；参与战略性的、高调的会议工作；以及在奖项结束后与第三部门的同事定期举行会议，以最大限度地发挥影响(参见影响的途径)。

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).