Helen L. Ball, Professor of Anthropology, PhD
Expertise
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Co-Sleeping, Bed-Sharing, and Breastfeeding
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Hospital Practice/Policy and Breastfeeding
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SIDS and Breastfeeding
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Culture and Breastfeeding
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Mammals and Breastfeeding
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Baby Training/Sleep Programs
Upcoming Conferences
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May 1, 2012 - May 31, 2012Worldwide,
Previous Conferences
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April 26, 2012 - April 27, 2012Troon, Scotland,United Kingdom
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March 16, 2012 - March 17, 2012Columbus,Ohio,United States
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November 24, 2011 - November 25, 2011Liverpool,United Kingdom
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October 27, 2011Hasselt,Belgium
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September 16, 2011Ponteland,Northumberland,United Kingdom
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June 8, 2011 - June 10, 2011Grange over Sands,United Kingdom
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April 7, 2011 - April 10, 2011Avila,Spain
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March 25, 2011Paris,France
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December 8, 2010 - December 9, 2010Harrogate,United Kingdom
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December 3, 2010 - December 5, 2010Rome,Italy
About the Speaker
An anthropologist with 16 years experience in breastfeeding and infant sleep research, Helen speaks around the world to clinicians, midwives, lactation professionals, policy-makers, peer supporters and parents. She presents research evidence (including, but not limited to, her own published studies) and examples of how these have been applied in practice. She offers talks on breastfeeding and infant sleep, bed-sharing, SIDS, sleep safety, and mother-infant sleep environments on the postnatal ward. Taking an anthropological and evolutionary perspective she places human infants and their parents in a mammalian context and explores the consequences of the mismatches we experience between the expectations of contemporary society and evolved biology.
Official Bio for Brochure
Helen Ball is Professor of Anthropology at Durham University, England, where she runs the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab. She has published numerous research articles on infant sleep, breastfeeding, bed-sharing, SIDS-risks, and postnatal care. Helen works with UK hospitals, breastfeeding organisations, and parenting charities on parent-infant sleep and feeding interventions and various aspects of policy development. She has contributed to UK Department of Health guidance on breastfeeding and night-time infant care, and to UK SIDS risk reduction guidelines. She is a member of LLLGB's Panel of Professional Advisors, NCT's Research Advisory Group, and a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Human Lactation.
Bio for Introduction
Helen Ball obtained her PhD in Biological Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1991, beginning her academic career as a primatologist. After being appointed at Durham University in 1993 Helen developed a research focus in the observation of human mothers and infants and began exploring what happened to babies at night. Helen's current research involves behavioural and physiological investigations of infant, child and adult sleep (or lack of it). Now Professor of Anthropology at Durham, Helen runs the 'Parent-Infant Sleep Lab', supervises a team of 11 doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, and conducts research in various local hospitals and the community. She contributes to national and international guidelines on infant sleep and bed-sharing and has worked with numerous UK hospitals, the UK Department of Health, the Royal College of Midwives, and UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative on the development of guidance and policy documents. She serves on the Research Advisory Board of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) and the Panel of Professional Advisors for La Leche League GB. She was recently invited to serve as Consulting Editor for the Journal of Human Lactation and her latest project involves development of an online information source on infant sleep for parents and health professionals.
Presentations
This speaker is pleased to provide presentations on the following topics to professional and parenting conferences. Presentations on other topics may be available upon request and subject to sufficient development lead-time. (For CERP topics, required paperwork will be provided promptly to meet CERP deadlines.)
Breastfeeding on the postnatal ward: does it matter what happens at night?
Frequent suckling and skin-to-skin contact facilitate both early breastfeeding behaviour and lactation physiology. As frequent suckling is particularly important at night, mother-infant sleep contact is a normal component of night-time breastfeeding. On the post-natal ward standard care currently involves infants rooming-in with their mothers both day and night. Although rooming-in facilitates breastfeeding on demand in comparison with nursery care, it does not permit continuous mother-infant contact or spontaneous suckling. This talk discusses our randomised trials to examine the effects of mother-infant sleep contact (baby-in-bed and side-car crib) on the postnatal ward (Ball et al 2006, Ball et al 2011) and the implications for breastfeeding initiation and continuation. Night-time video observations and examples of hospital policies regarding night-time postnatal care will be shared.
Infant sleep, breastfeeding & bed-sharing: the good, the bad, and the practical
Human infants are the most neurologically immature of all primates at birth, yet infant care practices in many industrialised societies fail to acknowledge the dependent nature of human infants and their need for physical contact. In this talk the preoccupation with infant independence is traced historically and compared with infant care practices across cultures. We examine the relationship between breastfeeding and bed-sharing, and the complex relationship between infant sleep location and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Helen explains why a simple message to 'ban' bed-sharing is in neither babies' nor parents' best interests.
Breastfeeding and Infant Sleep
Negotiating the relationship between infant feeding and sleeping has become a minefield for new parents with claims and counter-claims about how, where, and when infants 'should' or 'should not' sleep. New research articles appear frequently supporting apparently contradictory positions, while many studies regarding infant sleep fail to take the particular needs of breastfeeding mothers and infants into account. This talk summarises the latest findings regarding sleep training, scheduling, and sleep development.
Nurturing as nature intended: an evolutionary perspective on lactation and breastfeeding
Taking an evolutionary and anthropological perspective this talk situates humans within a mammalian context. We examine variation in lactation physiology and behaviour across different species and societies. We explore how milk composition, feed frequency, and lactation duration varies, and why, and consider what this can tell us about ‘managing’ human lactation. In utilising practices such as infant self-attachment, kangaroo care, and biological nurturing the lactation community are promoting techniques that support infant evolved biology and behaviour. Now we need to think about how we might employ similar principles for mothers in support of the initiation and continuation of lactation. We will consider the impact that practices such as labour analgesia, post-natal separation, infrequent feeding, and infant sleep training, have upon maternal physiology in disrupting the mechanisms of lactation, and giving rise to problems such as delayed onset of lactogenesis II, insufficient milk syndrome, and early termination of breastfeeding.
