This workshops aim is to bring together academics, policy makers, practitioners and parents to discuss ethical issues surrounding breastfeeding, breastfeeding promotion and breastfeeding support. There is a particular focus on how researchers in ethics might be able to help practitioners and policy makers (and of course, parents!) and on how parents, practitioners and policy makers can inform research.

This workshop is sponsored by the Southampton Ethics Centre.

Confirmed Speakers

Fiona Woollard, Associate Professor in Philosophy, University of Southampton

Fiona works in the Philosophy of Pregnancy, Birth and Early Motherhood, with a special interest in breastfeeding promotion and issues of guilt and shame surrounding infant feeding decisions. She argues that identifying philosophical mistakes in the way we think about maternal behaviour can depolarise the conversation around infant feeding and improve the well-being of mothers.

Abigail Locke, Professor in Psychology, University of Bradford

Abigail Locke is a critical social psychologist whose research work has a discursive flavour. She investigates topics around gender, parenting, identity and health. She has a particular interest in what society constructs as ‘good’ mothering and fathering. She is currently working on a project looking at fathers in primary caregiving roles, considering societal versions of masculinity and gendered binaries of care-work, as well as having a continued interest in infant feeding. Abigail is currently Professor of Psychology at the University of Bradford, and Visiting Professor in Social and Health Psychology at the University of Derby, both in the UK. Abigail has previously held academic positions at the Universities of Loughborough, Huddersfield, Derby and Coventry.

Anthea Tenant-Eyles, Programme Manager (South), Breastfeeding Network

Anthea Tennant-Eyles trained as a breastfeeding peer supporter with The Breastfeeding Network in 2009 and now works as one of the Programme Managers, overseeing a number of commissioned projects in the South of England. Anthea will be presenting the findings of an external evaluation exploring the impact of breastfeeding peer support offered to mums and health professionals by its members across the UK.

For the panel discussion, the speakers will be joined by:

Elizabeth Cluett, Lead Midwife for Education, University of Southampton

Liz is a Senior lecturer and Lead Midwife for Education, within the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton. As a practising midwife and an experienced educationally focused academic, Elizabeth’s role is to lead on the development and provision of high quality education based on best evidence, so contributing to the develop of current and future health care practitioners, particularly midwives, so through their learning the quality of client care is enhanced.

Elselikn Kingma, Associate Professor in Philosophy, University of Southampton

Elselijn has recently won a major grant from the ERC for her project on the metaphysics of pregnancy, but is also interested in Philosophy of Pregnancy, Birth and Early Motherhood more widely. Before studying Philosophy, Elselijn obtained undergraduate degrees in Clinical Medicine (2004) and Cognitive & Neuro Psychology (2004) at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. She uses her interdiscplinary background to inform her work on discussion of maternal behaviour.

Provisional Schedule

10am Welcome and introductions

10.15- 11.00 Is Infant Feeding a Feminist Issue?

Abigail Locke, Professor in Psychology, University of Bradford.

11.00-11.45 The Breastfeeding Dilemma - Philosophy to the Rescue?

Fiona Woollard, Associate Professor in Philosophy, University of Southampton

11.45- 12.00 Coffee Break

12.00- 12.45 Mums supporting mums - new evidence of the impact of breastfeeding peer support

Anthea Tenant-Eyles, Programme Manager (South), Breastfeeding Network

12.45 - 2pm Lunch and networking

2pm- 3pm Panel discussion

3pm - 5pm optional networking in pub.

Registration is free and refreshments will be provided.

The event is wheelchair accessible, and an induction loop (or Roger Pen) can be made available. However, some adjustments may need to be made to some activities so please do let us know when registering. We expect to be able to book Lactation Rooms, Rest Rooms, Sign Language Interpreters and Electronic Note-takers, but we can only guarantee availability if requests have been received by 1st January 2017. (We will of course do our absolute best to meet any requests made after this time.) Please contact: f.woollard@soton.ac.uk if you have any queries.

We welcome babies and small children. If you intend to bring a baby or child, please contact us so we can do everything we can to make you and your little one as comfortable as possible. (We should note that due to room availability the room we have booked is not super-ideal for babies and children but we can certainly accommodate them.)

(Image: By honey-bee (Flickr: breast feeding) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)