What is your PhD about?
My PhD is asking a simple but very loaded question: is Ireland breastfeeding-friendly? There are lots of recommendations and social supports for breastfeeding, but we don’t know much about whether the built environment actually encourages mothers to put that knowledge into practice. The project’s principal investigator is Prof Mary Rose Sweeney, who was funded by the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at RCSI to undertake this study.
How are you approaching the work?
We’re using a citizen science approach, involving participants at every stage of the study. We’re asking mothers about the maternity hospital setting, community spaces like restaurants and cafes and even their workplaces, to see if the environment is truly supportive of breastfeeding.
And we’re using a photovoice method,…