The role of the midwife in breastfeeding: Dichotomies and dissonance

The role of the midwife in breastfeeding is extensive and includes relaying knowledge about the subject, promoting, encouraging and supporting breastfeeding mothers, complying with policies and practices, and importantly, practising in a professional manner. Although at first glance these aspects of the role appear simple and straightforward, when considered in more depth, this is often not the case. There are inherent problems associated with all the above aspects of the role because of the competing paradigms, ideals or models affiliated to breastfeeding. This article will examine each of the above aspects of the midwives role and discuss suggestions for the way forward.

The dichotomies and dissonances associated with the midwives' role in breastfeeding became evident when undertaking a study in 2006 looking at midwives' experiences of breastfeeding on a personal, educational and professional level. In the study 12 midwives were interviewed from a small maternity unit in Nottinghamshire. From these interviews, a questionnaire was formulated and 711 where distributed to six maternity units in the North of England. Four hundred and ten questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 57.8% (Battersby, 2006). Some of the findings from this study will be incorporated within this paper to enhance the discussion.