Breastfeeding is a practice which is promoted and scrutinised in the UK and internationally. In this paper we use interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the experiences of eight, British, first-time mothers who struggled with breastfeeding in the early postpartum period. Participants kept audio diary accounts of their infant feeding experiences across a seven day period immediately following the birth of their infant and took part in related semistructured interviews a few days after completion of the diary. The overarching theme identified was of a tension between the participants' lived, embodied experience of struggling to breastfeed and the cultural construction of breastfeeding as 'natural' and trouble-free. Participants reported particular difficulties interpreting the pain they experienced during feeds, and their emerging maternal identities were threatened, often fluctuating considerably from feed to feed. We discuss some of the implications for breastfeeding promotion and argue for greater awareness and understanding of breastfeeding difficulties, so that breastfeeding women are less likely to interpret these as a personal shortcoming in a manner which disempowers them. We also advocate the need to address proximal and distal influences around the breastfeeding dyad and in particular to consider the broader cultural context in the United Kingdom where breastfeeding is routinely 2 promoted yet often constructed as a shameful act if performed in the public arena.

Many women report difficulties with breastfeeding and do not maintain the practice for as long as intended. Although psychologists and other researchers have explored some of the difficulties they experience, fuller exploration of the relational contexts in which breastfeeding takes place is warranted to enable more in-depth analysis of the challenges these pose for breastfeeding women. The present paper is based on qualitative data collected from 22 first-time breastfeeding mothers through two phases of interviews and audio-diaries which explored how the participants experienced their relationships with significant others and the wider social context of breastfeeding in the first five weeks postpartum. Using a thematic analysis informed by symbolic interactionism, we develop the overarching theme of 'Practising socially sensitive lactation' which captures how participants felt the need to manage tensions between breastfeeding and their perceptions of the needs, expectations and comfort of others. We argue that breastfeeding remains a problematic social act, despite its agreed importance for child health. Whilst acknowledging the limitations of our sample and analytic approach, we suggest ways in which perinatal and public health interventions can take more effective account of the social challenges of breastfeeding in order to facilitate the health and psychological well-being of mothers and their infants.

Recent feminist analyses, particularly from those working within a poststructuralist framework, have highlighted a number of historically located and contradictory socio-cultural constructions and practices which women are faced with when negotiating infant feeding, especially breastfeeding, within contemporary western contexts. However, there has been little explicit analysis of the practice of expressing breast milk. The aim of this article is to explore the embodied practice of expressing breast milk. This is done by analysing, from a feminist poststructuralist perspective, discourse surrounding expressing breast milk in sixteen first time mothers' accounts of early infant feeding. Participants were recruited from a hospital in the South Midlands of England. The data are drawn from the first phase of a larger longitudinal study, during which mothers kept an audio diary about their breastfeeding experiences for seven days following discharge from hospital, and then took part in a follow-up interview. Key themes identified are expressing breast milk as (i) a way of managing pain whilst still feeding breast milk; (ii) a solution to the inefficiencies of the maternal body; (iii) enhancing or disrupting the 'bonding process'; (iv) a way of managing feeding in public; and (v) a way to negotiate some independence and manage the demands of breastfeeding. Links between these and broader historical and socio-cultural constructions and practices are discussed. This analysis expands current feminist theorising around how women actively create the 'good maternal 2 body'. As constructed by the participants, expressing breast milk appears to be largely a way of aligning subjectivity with cultural ideologies of motherhood.Moreover, breastfeeding discourses and practices available to mothers are not limitless and processes of power restrict the possibilities for women in relation to infant feeding.

S. (2015). Evaluating the audio-diary method in qualitative research. Qualitative Research Journal. AbstractPurpose: Audio-diary methods are under-utilised in contemporary qualitative research. In this paper we discuss participants and researchers' experiences of using audio-diaries alongside semi-structured interviews to explore breastfeeding experiences in a short-term longitudinal study with 22 first-time mothers.Methodology: We provide a qualitative content analysis of the participants' feedback about their experiences of the audio-diary method and supplement this with the perspectives of the research team based on fieldwork notes, memos and team discussions. We pay particular attention to the ways in which the data attained from diaries compared with those from the interviews.Findings: The diaries produced were highly heterogeneous in terms of data length and quality. Participants' experiences with the method were varied. Some found the process therapeutic and useful for reflecting upon the development of breastfeeding skills whilst negative aspects related to lack of mobility, self-consciousness and concerns about confidentiality. Researchers were positive about the audio-diary method but raised certain ethical, epistemological and methodological concerns. These include debates around the use of prompts, appropriate support for participants and the potential of the method to influence the behaviour under scrutiny. Interview and diary accounts contrasted and complemented in ways which typically enriched data analysis.Evaluating the audio-diary method in qualitative research 2 Implications: The authors conclude that audio-diaries are a flexible and useful tool for qualitative research especially within critical realist and phenomenological paradigms.Originality: This appears to be the first paper to evaluate both participants and researchers' experiences of using audio-diaries in a detailed and systematic fashion.

Experiences of shame are often difficult to manage, not least because of their interpersonal implications. However, limited research attention has been paid to the management and repair of shame, and in particular to the role that social factors may play in this. We aimed to explore these issues by obtaining 50 written first-person accounts of experiences of managing difficult episodes of shame from a cross-section of students and employees at a British university. These participant-generated narrative accounts were supplemented by written answers to open-ended questions. Via a contextual constructionist thematic analysis three overarching themes were identified: The centrality of others' evaluations of the self; Repositioning the self vis-à-vis othersand Being disabled by shame. Discussion focuses on the first two of these themes which together suggest that because the participants saw their shame as produced in interaction with others, effective management and repair of shame depended not just on a changed view of the self but on a repositioning of the self in relation to others. This analysis therefore suggests that repair of shame may often need to be mutually negotiated and as such provides support for theoretical approaches to shame which emphasise the centrality of others' actual or perceived judgements of the self.