The UK Baby Friendly Initiative provides services and organisations (such as maternity, neonatal, Health Visiting and Children’s Centres) with standards to provide high standards of care during pregnancy and after birth. These standards are designed to improve outcomes for mothers and babies and support them to make informed decisions about how they feed and care for their babies.

The aim of my research is to explore women’s experiences about the support and information they received from organisations that have been awarded Baby Friendly status. This study is particularly interested in understanding the experiences of women from different socioeconomic backgrounds to ensure appropriate support is available for all families.

As a health visitor and as a mother, I believe that it is important that all women have positive experiences when feeding and caring for their babies, whether they breast or formula feed. It is hoped that the experiences that women share during this study will be used to inform the infant feeding care that is provided to women and families in the future.

Women are being asked to share their thoughts and experiences in a diary and during interviews to find out how the UK Baby Friendly Initiative standards have made a difference to the information and support they have received.
Recruitment to this study is now closed.

If you would like more information about the study, please contact Pippa Atkinson patkinson4@uclan.ac.uk
This research is being undertaken as part of a PhD qualification at the University of Central Lancashire and has ethics approval from the HRA and HCRW