Education in the care of older people, beginning at undergraduate-level, will help to meet the needs of our aging population. Thus, we need to understand why and in what ways medical students have difficulty engaging with older people and geriatric medicine. Twenty-two medical students studying at the University of Bristol (UK) participated in focus groups, exploring their attitudes toward older people and toward geriatric medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: More women with intellectual disabilities are becoming mothers but fewer are known to breastfeed compared with other women. Women with intellectual disabilities are entitled to accessible antenatal and infant feeding information, yet are rarely asked for their views on available resources. This article reports on the final stage of a UK project exploring how women with intellectual disabilities are supported to make infant feeding decisions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComplementary feeding is the process of introducing solid foods to milk-fed infants (also known as weaning). Current UK guidance states that complementary feeding should occur around 6 months but not before 4 months. This systematic review explores how parents in the UK, with an infant under 24 months of age, engage with sources of information and advice about complementary feeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWomen with learning disabilities are less likely to breastfeed than other women. They may find it hard to understand or learn feeding techniques or know that they have infant feeding choices. This population may be supported during their pregnancies by a range of professionals with differing priorities and responsibilities towards both the mother and the baby.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMatern Child Nutr
April 2022
Mothers with learning disabilities face many challenges during the perinatal period including preparing for and establishing infant feeding. Evidence shows that women with learning disabilities are less likely to breastfeed than other mothers. A scoping review was undertaken using Arksey and O'Malley's methodology to understand what is known about how women with learning disabilities can be supported to make infant feeding decisions, particularly in relation to the use of appropriate and accessible images.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBreastmilk sharing via the internet has become more popular in recent years, with a resultant increase in media attention. It is actively discouraged by public health bodies in at least three countries. We undertook a qualitative analysis of worldwide English language news media (online newspaper articles and transcripts of television and radio pieces) focusing on peer-to-peer breastmilk sharing during a 24-month period (2015-2016).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The number of people living with and beyond cancer is increasing; a significant number of these people will experience the long-term and late effects of cancer and its treatment. Research into this group has been identified as a priority to better understand healthcare needs. This review identified and synthesised qualitative research data relating to the lived experience of the consequences of cancer and its treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper compares experiences of breastfeeding outside the home for women living in low-income and high-income neighborhoods of the same city. Our findings are based on an analysis of 22 interviews with breastfeeding mothers (11 in each of two study areas) undertaken in Bristol, UK in 2017. We extend existing scholarship by showing how experiences of breastfeeding vary not only at the regional level but between local areas of the same city, and outline how our findings can inform policy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSociol Health Illn
March 2019
This paper examines how gender dynamics shape human tissue donation for research and for human health. Drawing on research investigating the donation of different types of bodily tissues including blood, plasma, breastmilk, cord blood, foetal tissue and placentae we consider how and why women and men are viewed as different kinds of donors. We situate these donation practices within a broader understanding of gender difference to explain why any sociology of donation needs to take account of gender.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To develop a descriptive account of parents' experiences of written feedback from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), based on primary data collected from semi-structured focus groups.
Design: Four focus groups were held with a purposive sample of parents who had recently received written weight feedback from the NCMP in one local authority in England. Thematic data analysis was undertaken to develop a narrative of emergent themes regarding parents' experiences and the social influences shaping this.
Int Breastfeed J
January 2018
Background: Although breastfeeding is widely acknowledged as the normal method of infant feeding, there are large variations in rates of initiation and duration. Several factors are linked to the likelihood of breastfeeding initiation, including the influence and opinion of the child's father. There is limited research into men's perception of their influence, or if they feel it appropriate to be involved in deciding how to feed their children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent public health breastfeeding promotion efforts have galvanized media debates about breastfeeding in wealthy, Euro-American settings. A growing body of research demonstrates that while breastfeeding is increasingly viewed as important for health, mothers continue to face significant structural and cultural barriers. Concerns have been raised about the moralizing aspects of breastfeeding promotion and its detrimental effects on those who do not breastfeed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBreastmilk is widely considered as the optimum nutrition source for babies and an important factor in both improving public health and reducing health inequalities. Current international/national policy supports long-term breastfeeding. UK breastfeeding initiation rates are high but rapidly decline, and the numbers breastfeeding in the second year and beyond are unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes breastfeeding for 2 years and beyond. Despite this, only 25% of women in the United Kingdom are breastfeeding at all by 6 months postpartum, with a minority of women breastfeeding beyond the first year. Those who do often report feeling ridiculed or alienated in their choice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom 1999 onwards most English NHS regions launched multidisciplinary public health training schemes. These schemes were open to those from backgrounds other than medicine and followed on from the announcement of a new multidisciplinary Public Health Specialist post-a post equivalent to the traditional medical Consultant in Public Health Medicine. This article documents the issues arising during the first few years of the multidisciplinary public health training schemes.
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