A University of Wollongong-led study to increase the rate of breastfeeding among Aboriginal women has been awarded funding from the Australian Government's Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
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The project to trial peer support for breastfeeding for Aboriginal women has been awarded $1.5 million over 18 months.
This will be the first study to formally trial breastfeeding peer support for Aboriginal women.
Breastfeeding is known to improve nutritional and long-term health outcomes, however, Aboriginal women are less likely than other Australian women to breastfeed their children.
Associate Professor Rowena Ivers from UOW Graduate Medicine is leading the study.
She said that while peer support and scheduled visits were known to increase breastfeeding rates and duration, no studies had formally trialled breastfeeding peer support for Aboriginal women.
"This study involves using Aboriginal peer support workers to support Aboriginal women to initiate breastfeeding and to breastfeed over the first six months of life, by using face-to-face visits, phone and video-chat and social media," Professor Ivers said.
The study will involve six Aboriginal maternal and infant health services in NSW, and aims to recruit 720 mother and baby pairs over a five-year period.
The researchers will also interview Aboriginal women and their health carers to assess the support they received for breastfeeding.
Professor Karen Charlton from UOW's Smart Foods Centre and the Illawarra Health and Medical Institute is another chief investigator on the project, as are researchers from the University of Sydney, University of Technology and La Trobe University.
UOW researchers Dr Shahla Meedya, from the School of Nursing, and health economist Professor Simon Eckermann, from the Australian Health Services Research Institute, are also on the research team.
Meantime, UOW researchers will also be collaborating on other recently announced MRFF projects.
In one of these projects, researchers from the UOW-based ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Sciences will contribute to a study to develop 3D bioprinting technology to treat severe and chronic skin wounds.
In the other, researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences will contribute to research that aims to reduce vulnerability and improve developmental and health outcomes for children from disadvantaged environments.
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
