Ethnographic Research in Maternal and Child Health

A unique and innovative resource for conducting ethnographic research in health care settings, Ethnographic Research in Maternal and Child Health provides a combination of ethnographic theory and an international selection of empirical case studies.

The book begins with an overview of the origins and development of ethnography as a methodology, discussing underpinning theoretical perspectives, key methods and challenges related to conducting this type of research. The following substantive chapters present and reflect on ethnographic studies conducted in the fields of maternal and child health, neonatal nursing, midwifery and reproductive health.

Designed for academics, postgraduate students and health practitioners within maternal and child health, family health, medical sociology, medical anthropology, medicine, midwifery, neonatal care, paediatrics, social anthropology and public health, the book will also illuminate issues that can help health practitioners to improve service delivery.

Fiona Dykes is Professor of Maternal and Infant Health and Director of the Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN), University of Central Lancashire. She is also employed part of her time as a Visiting Professor at Dalarna University in Sweden; she is a Visiting Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong and an Adjunct Professor at University of Western Sydney. Fiona has a particular interest in the global, socio-cultural and political influences upon infant and young child feeding practices. She is a member of the editorial board for Maternal and Child Nutrition, the Wiley-Blackwell published international journal (editorial office in MAINN) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Fiona is author of over sixty peer reviewed papers and editor of several books including her monograph, Breastfeeding in Hospital: Mothers, Midwives and the Production Line (Routledge) and Infant and Young Child Feeding: Challenges to implementing a Global Strategy (Wiley-Blackwell).

Renée Flacking is Associate Professor at the School of Education, Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Sweden. She is also a Visiting Fellow at University of Central Lancashire, UK and a Visiting Associate Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong. Renée has a background as a Paediatric Nurse, having worked in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for more than 10 years. In 2009-2010 she undertook her PostDoc with Professor Fiona Dykes as her supervisor in Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN), University of Central Lancashire, UK, conducting an ethnographic study in neonatal units in Sweden and England focusing on infant feeding and relationality. Flacking’s main research interest is in the area of breastfeeding and parenting in families with preterm infants focusing on emotional, relational and socio-cultural influences. Flacking is the author of twenty peer reviewed papers and the author of Feeding preterm infants in Sweden: challenges to implementing the Global Strategy in a pro-breastfeeding culture. In: F Dykes, Hall Moran, ed. Infant and Young Child Feeding – Challenges to implementing a Global Strategy. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.