Where do Australian midwives and midwifery students gain critical breastfeeding knowledge and support skills?
It’s a question that researchers from the University of Notre Dame’s School of Nursing and Midwifery are currently investigating in a bid to enhance best practices.
Exclusive breastfeeding is the optimal nutritional food for newborns and babies under six months and while breastfeeding initiation in Australia is high at 96% (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011), only 29% of mothers continue to exclusively breastfeed until their baby is six months old (Australian Bureau of Statistics., 2017-18).
Reported reasons include inconsistent or confusing advice from midwives and child health nurses.
The study is aiming to understand where practicing midwives and midwifery students in Australia source their breastfeeding knowledge and support skills, with objectives to describe accreditation requirements, outline breastfeeding curriculum content in Australian Schools of Midwifery, identify current sources of midwives’ and midwifery students’ breastfeeding knowledge, and offer recommendations based on the study findings.
Data collected will be critical for shaping evidence-based revisions to the midwifery curriculum, ensuring the provision of consistent, best practice breastfeeding and lactation support for women. According to researchers, one possible outcome of the research could be the chance to offer feedback to ANMAC and other stakeholders regarding any curriculum-related findings that could improve breastfeeding knowledge generation and adoption.
Midwives and midwifery students are being asked to participate in a survey (10 minutes) and/or individual semi-structured interview (20-30 minutes) about their sources of breastfeeding knowledge. Questions cover educational background, current practice, sources of breastfeeding knowledge, continuing education, recommendations for improvement.
Midwives can take part here
Midwifery students can take part here
More information: Contact Chief Investigator Dr Gail Ross-Adjie at Gail.Ross-Adjie1@nd.edu.au or 08 9433 0636
