Dr Gill Thomson

Peer Support: politics and possibilitiesDr Gill Thomson

Breastfeeding peer support interventions are internationally recognised as having the potential to contribute to improving breastfeeding duration (World Health Organisation, 2003).  A recent Cochrane Review reported that additional support from lay and professional supporters can have an impact on breastfeeding rates (Renfrew et al, 2012).  Furthermore, qualitative studies suggest that breastfeeding peer support can encourage and enable women to breastfeed for longer periods and can have a positive impact on maternal well being (e.g. Thomson et al, 2012).  However, a recent meta-regression of breastfeeding peer support randomised controlled trials found little evidence that breastfeeding peer support interventions improve breastfeeding durations in high-income countries (Jolly et al, 2012).  Policy makers and commissioners from developed countries who are looking to commission breastfeeding peer support services therefore have every cause to be puzzled as to whether or not they can improve continuation rates.  In this presentation I highlight some of the key facilitators and difficulties in the design, delivery and implementation of breastfeeding peer support interventions through drawing on insights from mothers, peer supporters and professionals' perspectives.  I also argue how intervention design and implementation problematize the interpretation of existing trial data and how there is a need for alternative approaches to evidence review that allows findings from different methodological traditions to be meaningfully integrated. There is a need to stop merely asking 'does breastfeeding peer support work' and look towards approaches which enlighten when, for whom and in what context breastfeeding peer support can be successful (Thomson & Trickey, 2013).

Biography

Dr Gill Thomson is currently working as a Senior Research Fellow within the Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN) in the University of Central Lancashire.   Gill has a psychology academic background and has worked within the public, private and voluntary sector.   Since completing her Masters in the Psychology of Child Development in 1998, she has been employed on a number of consultation projects, the majority of which involved engaging with vulnerable population groups.  Following successful completion of her PhD at the end of 2007 she has been employed by UCLan and has been involved in a number of research/evaluation based projects funded by various Primary Care Trusts, Department of Health and the National Breastfeeding Helpline to explore psychosocial influences and experiences towards maternity services, infant feeding issues and support services.  Gill's research interests relate to psychosocial influences and implications of peri-natal care, with a particular focus on factors that impact upon maternal well being.  She also has a particular specialism in the interpretive phenomenological based research.