ROBIN, V5
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Empowering midwives and health visitors to reduce maternal and child obesity through tailored breastfeeding support for overweight and obese women: An Experience-Based Co-Design study.
IRAS ID
207841
Contact name
Yan-Shing Chang
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 24 days
Research summary
Breastfeeding is an early intervention which could reduce maternal postnatal weight retention and protect against child and adolescent obesity. Evidence from high income countries shows obese or overweight women are less likely to start breastfeeding or more likely to stop early. Research suggests midwives and health visitors do not feel sufficiently skilled or able to access appropriate guidance to support these women to breastfeed.
The project will use Experience-Based Co-design (EBCD) to co-design, pilot and evaluate an intervention, bringing clinicians, women, their family/friends together to identify ‘what works’ to empower midwives and health visitors to support women overweight or obese pre-pregnancy to exclusively breastfeed for 6months. This qualitative aspect of the study using EBCD aims to explore (a) how the content of breastfeeding information and support offered by midwives and health visitors can be tailored to support obese/overweight women (b) what aspects of information and support offered could be improved to help postnatal weight management.
The study will be undertaken in three stages: (1) non-participant observations in clinical settings to observe current midwifery and health visiting breastfeeding support practices; (2) semi-structured independent interviews with healthcare professionals (n=6), and women (n=15) and their family/friends to explore views and experiences on infant feeding support. The interviews will be audio/video recorded and analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis aims to identify key moments of experiences (‘touch points’), which will be edited into a 25-30 minute film/presentation; (3) workshops with (i) health visitors and midwives (ii) women and their family/friends and (iii) co-design workshop with women, family/friends, health visitors and midwives. The film/ presentation will be shown to trigger discussion. The final workshop aims for participants to engage in discussion to reach consensus on priorities for improving practice and co-design the intervention. Findings will inform tailored breastfeeding support interventions for overweight or obese women.
REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0366
Date of REC Opinion
30 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion